Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will take steps to increase bilateral funding in response to the covid-19 pandemic for (a) primary health and (b) girls’ education programmes.

We have contributed up to £774 million of UK aid to the international effort to fight COVID-19. We are at the forefront of the global response to the pandemic.

The UK is flexing our funding and programming to support health systems to manage the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic. We are maintaining our focus on the global Covid response, poverty reduction for the bottom billion and girls' education, plus climate change and delivering environmental outcomes. This includes working with partners to ensure essential health services, including primary health care, continue despite the challenges of the ongoing pandemic. This is a key part of our pledge to end the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children.

Education, particularly girls' education, will remain a top priority in the new FCDO. Through our bilateral programmes and as the largest contributor to both the Global Partnership for Education and Education Cannot Wait, we are proud to be a leading donor in support of basic education in developing countries. We recently announced £5.3 million of new UK aid to support the salaries of more than 5,500 teachers in the world's poorest refugee-hosting countries to deliver vital education and child protection services to over 300,000 children. Our Girls' Education Challenge programme is adapting to continue providing at least 1.3 million girls with essential education and support throughout the pandemic, for example through distance learning programmes and support for girls' wellbeing and safety.