Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to tackle (a) barriers to economic development, (b) preventable diseases and (c) malaria in developing countries.

DFID is taking major steps to tackle the barriers to economic development. In January the Secretary of State launched DFID’s Economic Development Strategy which sets out how the UK is stimulating growth that transforms economies and how we are helping the poorest countries to attract investment, trade more, and create millions of jobs. This will help create prosperous economies that lift people out of poverty, help countries overcome the need for aid, and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals whilst also benefiting Britain. The Strategy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/587374/DFID-Economic-Development-Strategy-2017.pdf

DFID is a leading global actor on preventable diseases, including malaria, TB, HIV/Aids, providing significant funding to the World Health Organisation, the Global Fund on Aids, TB and Malaria, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and running programmes across regions and from country offices.