Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sugg on 29 May (HL15755), how they intend to help Christian women whose religion is the cause of their trafficking and enslavement when they "do not directly target specific sub groups of marginalised people e.g. Christian women".
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK Government is committed to tackling modern slavery in all its forms, whatever the cause. The UK Government’s approach to tackling modern slavery in Pakistan is to reduce the permissive environment through community-based activities and to strengthen legislative and policy frameworks for more effective protection of those affected. Our programmes aim to target the most marginalised groups of people who we know are vulnerable to modern slavery. This can include religious minorities, such as Christian and Hindu women.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking, with their international partners, to check the spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and what estimate they have made of the number of Ebola (1) cases, and (2) related deaths, in that country since August 2018.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK is taking the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo extremely seriously. We are working with international partners to monitor the outbreak, and have been a leading donor to the response. UK funding to the World Health Organisation and UNICEF has enabled key activities critical to ending the outbreak including surveillance, contact tracing, infection prevention and control and vaccination.
As of 27 May 2019, there have been 1,920 confirmed and probable cases and 1,281 deaths. However, consistent disruption to response activities, a high proportion of community deaths, and a low proportion of cases from known contacts, means that the number of cases may be higher than reported.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sugg on 20 May (HL15585), what methods they used when deciding that there would be 322,000 additional users of the Delivering Sustainable and Equitable Increases in Family Planning in Kenya programme; of those, how many they estimate will use that programme for terminations of pregnancy; from what legislation the policy safe and unsafe abortion derives its mandate and authority to provide support "to increase awareness among policy-makers, legislators, national health authorities and health personnel of the circumstances under which abortion is allowed" in countries where abortion is illegal; and how much has been spent on abortions in each year since that policy was enacted.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
DFID Kenya used an internationally respected open-access modelling tool known as ‘Impact2 model’ to estimate the 322,000 additional Family Planning Users to be reached by the programme. This estimate does not include the terminations of pregnancy but covers only users of voluntary modern family planning.
DFID’s legislative authority to provide development assistance comes under the International Development Act (IDA). The policy on safe abortion takes an evidence-based, public health approach that aims to reduce death and disability caused by unsafe abortions. The policy is also consistent with the Cairo Programme of Action, agreed at the 1994 United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). The ICPD affirmed that in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning.
In countries where abortion is permitted, we can support development programmes that make safe abortion more accessible. In countries where it is highly restricted and maternal mortality and morbidity are high, we can help make the consequences of unsafe abortion more widely understood and can consider supporting processes of legal and policy reform.
The UK abortion policy can be viewed on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the UN World Food Programme's food security anylsis, published on 3 May, which states that North Korea’s food situation is critical and is set to worsen and that South Pyongan Province faces a severe food security crisis.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Limited availability of official data from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) makes comprehensive analysis of the situation difficult. DFID is currently the fourth largest donor to the World Food Programme (WFP). DFID provides both multi-year core funding (£40 million a year) and non-core funding. WFP can use these resources to respond rapidly to food insecurity where needs are greatest. DFID continues to track and monitor humanitarian risks around the globe.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to reports of a rise in number of Pakistani Christian girls being targeted by traffickers for exploitation in China, what assessment they have made of how the AAWAZ II Programme is (1) working effectively to minimise this trafficking stream, especially within the Punjab region, and (2) measuring its efficacy in reducing the prevalence of such trafficking within this targeted population group.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The AAWAZ II Programme will address a range of modern slavery issues, including child labour and forced and early marriage. An assessment of the programme’s effectiveness in addressing modern slavery has not yet been carried out as a range of activities are still under design. Once all baselines have been established the programme will be tracking progress through annual reviews and its monitoring and evaluation framework.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their assessment in the Department for International Development's Pakistan Report 2018 that there is a "significant modern slavery problem amongst the poor, minorities, women and children" in Pakistan and their policy to provide assistance to "target the poorest and most vulnerable", what steps they are taking to provide direct support to Christian women reportedly being trafficked to China as brides.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK Government’s approach to tackling modern slavery and trafficking in Pakistan is to reduce the permissive environment through community-based activities, and to strengthen the legislative framework for more effective prevention and control. Our programmes do not directly target specific sub groups of marginalised people eg; Christian women, but we do target marginalised communities from a range of disadvantaged backgrounds, including Christian women who are at risk of this terrible practice.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 18 September (HL10124) which stated that "we have no breakdown of funding for any abortion provision, or estimate of the number of procedures because this is a new programme, and the procurement of the implementing partner is underway", now that the implementing partner has been procured, how much of the £36 million of funding for family planning in Kenya will be spent on abortion provision and related activities; and how many abortion procedures will be funded by the project.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The ‘Delivering Sustainable and Equitable Increases in Family Planning in Kenya’ programme will take an integrated approach to sexual and reproductive health and rights in order to meet a wide range of women’s reproductive health needs. Because these services are to be integrated, it is not possible to disaggregate figures solely relating to safe abortion procedures. Over the life of the programme, it is expected to reach 322,000 additional users and it will provide 2.3 million Couple Years of Protection (CYP) and avert 2,221 maternal deaths.
The aim of DFID’s work on sexual and reproductive health and rights is to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions, increase the use of voluntary family planning, and give women control over their own bodies and lives.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any development funds are directed towards the rebuilding and provision of running water or electricity to Islamabad's shanty towns; and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK’s work in Pakistan is focused on peace and stability, making democracy work, jobs and growth and providing basic services.
UK aid prioritises support for the poorest and most excluded people and communities in Pakistan, thus DFID Pakistan’s bilateral programmes focus on provinces with the highest numbers of poor people and on strengthening the capacity of those provinces to deliver basic services to their populations. This includes supporting the provision of electricity and engaging with the governments regarding adequate water provision.
While we recognise that there are poor people living in Islamabad, without access to electricity or running water, they cannot be our focus. We expect the Islamabad Capital Development Authority to support them with support received at national level from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reconsider their policy of disregarding the status of Pakistan’s minorities in determining and allocating development aid.
Answered by Lord Bates
UK aid prioritises support for the poorest and most excluded people and communities in Pakistan regardless of race, religion, social background or nationality. Our investment will not only assist Pakistan to become a more prosperous country that will help millions of its citizens living in poverty, but will also improve stability and security in Pakistan, the region, and beyond.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when their officials working in Pakistan last visited the shanty towns on the periphery of Islamabad to report on the conditions in which the residents live; and whether they are collecting data on the percentage of people from Pakistan’s minorities living in such areas.
Answered by Lord Bates
UK aid prioritises support for the poorest and most excluded people and communities in Pakistan. Thus, whilst we recognise that there are poor people living in Islamabad, UK aid is focussed in the provinces with the highest number of poor people and on strengthening capacity of those provinces to deliver basic services to their populations.
DFID strive to visit as many programme locations as possible to gather feedback from communities, including minority communities. DFID Pakistan also has projects that work directly with minorities and aims to tackle the drivers underpinning intolerance and discrimination, through promoting greater understanding between communities.
DFID Pakistan is striving to better disaggregate its results through a data disaggregation action plan which focuses on 4 key areas: sex, age, disability and geography. This will improve our understanding of those who benefit from our programmes. We do not currently have plans to collect data on religion as we recognise the risks associated with potentially revealing such sensitive information for religious minorities.