Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 5 September 2014 to Question 207136, to the hon. Member for Brighton, Kemptown, what recent progress has been made on the outcomes of the Girl Summit of July 2014.

In December 2014, DFID approved a new £36 million programme to accelerate action to end child marriage in 12 priority countries. This implements the Secretary of State for International Development’s commitment at the Girl Summit to a new child, early and forced marriage programme. The programme will:

· Provide up to £25 million for a United Nations global programme to support national plans and actions to scale up efforts to end child marriage;

· Provide up to £8 million to the Amplifychange Fund to support civil society activists to end child marriage;

· Provide up to £3 million to generate greater knowledge on what works in relation to child marriage, for example in connection to social norms.

The government is working closely with UNICEF to ensure an effective process is in place to monitor the commitments made at the Girl Summit, with a first update due by mid-2015 which we will make public.