Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what proportion of bilateral programme funding had a gender equality policy marker in the last two years for which information is available; and what proportion of that funding had gender equality as a (a) principal and (b) significant objective.

Official data, sourced from the Statistics for International Development, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Creditor Reporting System, is available for 2022 and 2023. This data indicates that in 2022, 58% of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) programmes had a focus on gender equality (using OECD DAC markers Significant and Principal), with (1) 45% marked as Significant and (2) 13% marked as Principal. In 2023, 66% of FCDO bilateral ODA programmes had a focus on gender equality, with (1) 53% marked Significant and (2) 13% marked as Principal. The FCDO remains committed to ensure at least 80% of FCDO's bilateral aid programmes have a focus on gender equality by 2030. Due to an internal systems issue that excluded markers for a number of programmes, data submitted to the OECD Development Assistance Committee by the FCDO published in December 2024 was incorrect. This issue has now been resolved; data has now been corrected and an update published by the OECD.