Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress the Department for International Development is making for the current financial year in meeting its target of spending 50 per cent of its budget in fragile and conflict-affected states.
Answered by Lord Bates
DFID fully expects to spend at least 50% of its budget in fragile states and regions in the current financial year, as we have done every year since the commitment was made in 2015.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they are offering to the women of Yemen who are particularly affected by the conflict in that country.
Answered by Lord Bates
The current conflict has affected every man, woman, and child in Yemen. As always, however, it has had a disproportionate impact on women and girls. The incidence of violence against women is rising rapidly, including: sexual violence; domestic violence; forced early marriages; denial of resources; and psychological and emotional abuse. Furthermore, the UN estimates that more than 1 million pregnant women or nursing mothers are acutely malnourished.
Our support to UNHCR provides cash assistance for vulnerable displaced women and female headed households to access protection services, including support for women and girls to prevent and respond to sexual violence, legal assistance and psychosocial counselling. The UK’s funding to UNICEF provides nutritional support to pregnant women or nursing mothers. The UK is also actively advocating for the inclusion of women in peace talks and encouraging political actors to take women’s views into account.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they are providing to the estimated 22.2 million Yemenis in need of humanitarian assistance.
Answered by Lord Bates
At the Yemen Pledging Event in Geneva on 3 April, the UK announced £170 million in response to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen for the financial year 2018/2019. This funding will include support for nutrition, clean water and sanitation, and meet the immediate food needs for 2.5 million Yemenis. The UK has provided over £400 million in bilateral support since the conflict began in 2015.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they are offering to the women of Yemen to alleviate suffering during the conflict there.
Answered by Lord Bates
The current conflict has affected every man, woman, and child in Yemen. As always, however, it has had a disproportionate impact on women and girls. The incidence of violence against women is rising rapidly, including: sexual violence; domestic violence; forced early marriages; denial of resources; and psychological and emotional abuse. Furthermore, the UN estimates that more than 1 million pregnant women or nursing mothers are acutely malnourished.
Our support to UNHCR provides cash assistance for vulnerable displaced women and female headed households to access protection services, including support for women and girls to prevent and respond to sexual violence, legal assistance and counselling. The UK’s funding to UNICEF provides nutritional support to pregnant women and nursing mothers. The UK is also actively advocating for the inclusion of women in peace talks and encouraging political actors to take women’s views into account.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to help the estimated 22.2 million Yemenis in need of humanitarian assistance.
Answered by Lord Bates
At the Yemen Pledging Event in Geneva on 3 April, the UK announced £170 million in response to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen for the financial year 2018/2019. This funding will include support for nutrition, clean water and sanitation, and meet the immediate food needs for 2.5 million Yemenis. The UK has provided over £400 million in bilateral support since the conflict began in 2015.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many jobs for women in developing countries (1) have been, and (2) they estimate will be, created by the Commonwealth Development Corporation; whether they intend to set any targets in this regard; and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Bates
CDC targets jobs through the use of a development impact grid, to identify key employment sectors and countries; and through an assessment of the development case for each individual investment. This methodology does not depend solely on a job target but instead seeks to find investments which optimise the balance between four factors - the employment potential, the low income of the country, the difficulty of doing business, and the lack of available capital. This is to ensure that our investments are directed not only towards employment, but also to the countries most in need of assistance.
CDC’s Investment Policy does however direct CDC to focus on those sectors that create the most jobs in the poorest developing countries and it does measure and publish in its annual report the number of jobs created, for women and for men, in Africa and South Asia each year.
CDC investee companies employed 135,000 women in 2015. CDC investments help overcome other barriers faced by women in business. CDC investments in the power sector support the growth of firms, big and small, that create employment opportunities for women. CDC investments in microfinance institutions provide millions of women in Africa and South Asia with access to affordable financial services. Of the estimated 1.01 million direct and indirect jobs created by CDC investments in 2015, CDC estimates that 320,000 were jobs for women.
CDC is committed to playing its role in achieving Global Goal 5 to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls. CDC will continue to progress gender objectives on its forthcoming strategy.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Department for International Development (DfID) currently tracks how many jobs for women in developing countries (1) have been, and (2) they estimate will be, created through DfID-funded projects and programmes; whether they plan to set any targets in this regard; and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Bates
DFID historically has tracked and continues to track the impact of its programmes on women’s employment using indicators within each programme’s own monitoring and measurement system. For example a skills development programme in Pakistan is planning to train between 165,000-300,000 women to enhance their income/employment prospects.
The department does not plan to set any targets related to job creation for the whole organisation because the data and collection methods are not consistent enough between countries to be able to verify and report in the aggregate. DFID is working with international institutions to improve jobs data quality for the long term.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of reports of increased malnutrition and starvation in Yemen.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The United Nations report that 14.4 million people in Yemen are facing food insecurity, of which 7.6 million are facing severe food shortages, as cited in the UN’s 2016 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan. The UK government uses this UN report as one if its primary data sources. A number of humanitarian organisations have recently highlighted the acute food security and livelihood needs in Yemen, and the fact that food insecurity is likely to continue at a critical level in the coming months.
The security situation in Yemen is impacting the ability of humanitarian organisations to access populations to deliver assistance, and to make assessments of their needs. The UK continues to remind all parties to the conflict to take all reasonable steps to facilitate rapid and safe access for humanitarian agencies to all people in need in Yemen. This is essential to ensure that the international community has an accurate understanding of the levels of need in the country, including food insecurity.
The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has more than doubled its humanitarian support over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16. We work through UN agencies and NGOs, including the World Food Programme who provide emergency food support to over 570,000 people, through direct delivery of food or the provision of cash or food vouchers. We have also provided £21.7 million in 2015/16 to UNICEF for the provision of health and nutrition services through hospitals and mobile clinics. We are also funding the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism to improve the supply of essential commercial goods, including food, into Yemen.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that aid and humanitarian help is able to gain access to Sa’ada and Hajjah.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has more than doubled its support over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16 to respond to the humanitarian crisis. UK aid is focused on the most urgent life-saving needs, and has so far helped more than 1.3 million Yemenis who have been affected by the conflict with food assistance, medical supplies, water, and emergency shelter. Through our support to UN agencies and NGOs working in Sa’ada and Hajjah, people in need in these Governates are being provided with water, sanitation and hygiene support, health and nutrition assistance, shelter kits and cash to help address emergency food needs.
We work with partners such as UN agencies and NGOs who have good access and a strong track record of delivering and monitoring assistance in difficult and dangerous places. The security situation across Yemen is, however, impacting the ability of humanitarian organisations to access populations to deliver assistance, and to make assessments of their needs. The UK continues to urge all parties to the conflict to take all reasonable steps to facilitate rapid and safe access for humanitarian agencies to all people in need in Yemen.
UK aid is also supporting the UN to co-ordinate the international humanitarian response and to facilitate the delivery of aid across Yemen according to where needs are greatest including to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN Humanitarian Air Service and the Verification and Inspection Mechanism.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they are providing to aid agencies working in Yemen.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has more than doubled its support over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16 in response to the humanitarian crisis. UK aid is focused on the most urgent life-saving needs, and has so far helped more than 1.3 million Yemenis who have been affected by the conflict with food assistance, medical supplies, water, and emergency shelter.
We work with partners such as UN agencies and NGOs who have good access and a strong track record of delivering and monitoring assistance in difficult and dangerous places. The security situation in Yemen is, however, impacting the ability of humanitarian organisations to access populations to deliver assistance, and to make assessments of their needs. The UK continues to urge all parties to the conflict to take all reasonable steps to facilitate rapid and safe access for humanitarian agencies to all people in need in Yemen.
UK aid is also supporting the UN to co-ordinate the international humanitarian response and to facilitate the delivery of aid in Yemen including; the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN Humanitarian Air Service and the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism to improve supply of essential goods into Yemen.