Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to support civil society around the world to promote SDG implementation and monitoring.

We understand the global importance of the SDGs and are committed to working collaboratively with civil society organisations across the world to deliver change. Civil society organisations are important partners for the FCDO, delivering UK aid to those most in need, supporting policy development and tackling the biggest global challenges of our time. We continue to engage regularly with civil society at senior level including through bodies such as Bond and the organisations it represents, for instance discussing the SDGs at a Bond SDG Group town hall meeting in September. We provide direct support to civil society organisations through our country programmes and through central funds such as UK Aid Match and UK Aid Direct which work towards sustained poverty reduction and the achievement of the SDGs.