Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what further incentives they will offer to UK businesses to help deliver, through investment, joint venture or partnership, education and children's safety programmes, such as Sustainable Development Goal 4, including programmes supported by the FCDO, Unicef, the British Council, the Commonwealth of Learning, and the World Bank.

The UK is increasingly working alongside the private sector and philanthropies to deliver Sustainable Development Goal 4. We are a founding donor of the new International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd), which unlocks additional finance from multilateral development banks, amounting to $7 for every $1 of Official Development Assistance. IFFEd is also similarly partnering with philanthropies to unlock further funding. In addition, the Girls' Education Skills Partnership (GESP) programme is another UK-funded initiative working with the private sector to provide high-quality skills training to young women aged 13 to 24 in Nigeria and Bangladesh. GESP draws on resources of the private sector (including companies such as Unilever, Pearson, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Microsoft, Accenture, Standard Chartered, Vodafone and Cognizant) combined with the technical experience of UNICEF to support girls' learning so that they can earn a living.