Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government by how much they have expanded the Arab Partnership Participation Fund in order to support political and economic reform in the Middle East and North Africa since 2011; to which countries the funds were allocated; and how much was allocated in each case.

The Arab Partnership was created in 2010 as a part of the Government’s response to the Arab Spring. This initiative comprised two parts; the Foreign and Commonwealth Office-led Arab Partnership Participation Fund (APPF) and the Department for International Development-led Arab Partnership Economic Facility (APEF). Since 2011 APPF and APEF programmes have channelled £166m to projects across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to support the development of legitimate and inclusive institutions (including civil society, parliaments, media and judiciaries) to improve governance and enable inclusive economic growth and reform.

The APPF was launched in the Financial Year (FY) 2011-2 and provided funding worth £5,195,304. In FY 2014-5 it provided £10,512,791. The total funding from FY 2011-12 up to and including FY 2014-15 was £42,803,007. It was distributed as follows:

For FY 2015-6, the APPF will allocate £6m of funding to countries not currently receiving Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) funding, including Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and a small proportion of non-Official Development Assistance funding available for projects in Gulf States (£150k). The CSSF allocation to the MENA region for FY 2105-16 currently stands at £136.5m.