Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help support reductions in the number of children in East Africa facing barriers to education linked to (a) hunger, (b) access to water, (c) child labour and (d) child marriage.

Championing 12 years of quality education for all children, especially girls, is a top UK development priority. This includes help to overcome the full range of barriers that the poorest and most marginalised children face in accessing education.

FCDO supports education programmes across East Africa. For example, our support to Education Cannot Wait in Somalia is enabling access to education in crises, keeping schools open in the context of drought and severe levels of food insecurity, and promoting provision for the displaced.

Through our support to the UN Global Programme to End Child Marriage, we are targeting girls at risk in Uganda, Mozambique and Ethiopia, improving their access to education and tackling underlying drivers of child marriage. In 2021 alone, 750,000 people participated in dialogue to prevent and respond to child marriage and 250,000 adolescent girls accessed comprehensive sexuality education.