Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prioritise (1) sexual and reproductive health, and (2) the rights of women and girls, in the allocation of official development assistance to developing countries.

The UK is proud to defend and promote universal and comprehensive sexual and reproductive rights (SRHR). We are committed to working with our partners to drive progress and demonstrate leadership on SRHR on the global stage and in our programmes. This includes the recent announcement that up to £200 million will be delivered towards the Women's Integrated Sexual Health (WISH) Dividend programme focussed between 2024-29 on sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest rates of maternal mortality, neonatal deaths and unmet need for family planning in the world.

In March 2023, the FCDO published the UK's International Women and Girls Strategy which sets out our plan to promote and defend the rights of women and girls. In this, we committed to ensure that at least 80% of FCDO's bilateral aid programmes should have a focus on gender equality, using OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) markers, by 2030.