Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2020 to Question 67777 on Overseas Aid, what the value is of the allocations that have been made from the £200 million un-allocated component of the ODA Crisis Reserve in 2020-21 so far; to what programmes that funding has been allocated; and whether any of the £300 million re-deployable component of the ODA Crisis Reserve has been redeployed.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK ODA Crisis Reserve is an annual allocation of £500 million. This consists of a £200 million un-allocated reserve and a £300 million re-deployable reserve.
We used initial the £200 million to respond to COVID-19. We have now replenished this through using the redeployable element of the reserve. To date DFID Secretary of State has approved a total of £5 million from the 2020/21 ODA Crisis Reserve. The £5 million was approved by DFID SoS in February 2020 to the World Health Organisation to provide resilience to vulnerable countries in response to the global pandemic (£10 million approved from 19/20 crisis reserve and £5 million from 20/21 crisis reserve).
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding was allocated from (a) the UK Government public purse and (b) other countries to the World Health Organisation in 2019.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK is the third biggest donor to the WHO, giving £120 million per annum on average. We do not routinely keep data on funding allocated by other countries. The World Health Organization holds this information.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of the World Health Organisation on future core voluntary contributions from the UK.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK’s funding for WHO is based on our assessment of the organisation’s needs. The scale and timing of future core voluntary contributions will be considered as part of this assessment.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to Answer of 27 April 2020 to Question 37585 on World Health Organisation: Overseas Aid, what reforms to the World Health Organisation her Department is seeking as a result of that agency's response to the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Wendy Morton
DFID expects WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme (WHE), established in 2016, to continuously improve and develop its critical work.
As an example, in our annual reviews of performance, we have noted the need for WHE to continue to develop its capabilities around human resources – to ensure it can get the right people, in the right place at the right time.
Any review of WHE’s should come after the world has successfully addressed the COVID-19 pandemic and should consider the whole global response across countries and the international system, as well as WHO. The UK will engage on any review with a detailed position when this is forthcoming.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what information her Department holds on how the World Health Organisation plans to spend funding granted to that organisation by the UK Government in the next 12 months.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Government provides funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO) through a number of specific health programmes and through core funding. In the next 12 months, our core funding will support WHO deliver its 13th General Programme of Work that seeks to protect 1 billion people from health emergencies, provide 1 billion more people with access to universal health coverage, and enable 1 billion more people to live healthier lives. Our health programme support addresses specific UK priorities within the 13th General Programme of Work, for example, health systems strengthening, global health security and work to end the preventable deaths of mothers, children and new-borns.
The UK is the second largest Member State funder to WHO overall; this amount varies year upon year based on need – this was around 10% of WHO’s income over the last two years. The UK’s contribution to WHO for COVID-19 response is world-leading and will likely significantly increase UK’s share.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of Official Development Assistance was allocated to the World Health Organisation in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Wendy Morton
Around 1.3% of UK Official Development Assistance was delivered through the World Health Organisation in 2018 calendar year (latest period for which figures are available).
This reflects that WHO is a primarily technical and policy-focused agency and is one, important, aspect of the UK’s operational delivery of health and humanitarian programmes.
This percentage is likely to be higher for 2020 onwards due to the UK’s significant additional contribution to WHO for the COVID-19 response (an additional £75 million committed specifically for COVID-19 on top of existing programming, for 2020).
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he is taking steps to ensure that Governments overseas put in place covid-19 responses that respect (a) human rights, (b) international law and (c) the principles of (i) legality, (ii) necessity and (iii) proportionality.
Answered by Nigel Adams
As Parliament rose earlier than planned and the first day for answer of this PQ was after the Easter recess, due to the pace of developments during the COVID-19 crisis, I submitted a response by email on 7 April, with the following response. The Table Office have agreed this approach.
The UK is committed to protecting and promoting human rights throughout the world. We are engaging extensively with a range of international partners including the G7 and G20 to support an effective global response to the Covid-19 pandemic. We continue to encourage all countries to follow World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines and to ensure that all responses to the Covid-19 outbreak comply with international human rights law.
In his statement after the G7 meeting of 25 March, the Foreign Secretary said that G7 partners had agreed to work together to intensify international co-operation to support vulnerable countries. The UK has announced up to £241 million of UK aid funding to support the global efforts to combat the outbreak of Covid-19.