Asked by: Lord Bates (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of South Sudan to increase the proportion of their national budget allocated to health and education, and to tackle corruption.
Answered by Baroness Winterton of Doncaster - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains committed to supporting peace, stability and the humanitarian response in South Sudan. As a leading donor, the UK is providing £72 million of aid to South Sudan this financial year, supporting humanitarian assistance, resilience and livelihoods, peacebuilding, health and education. This funding also supports community-led peace initiatives which strengthen conflict prevention and resolution through our South Sudan Peacebuilding Programme.
We remain ready to respond to emerging risks. This includes a £500,000 contribution to the World Health Organization to strengthen South Sudan's Ebola preparedness through improving surveillance, case detection and emergency response capacity. We continue to call on South Sudan's leadership to invest in its people. Through our co-chairmanship of the South Sudan Public Financial Management Oversight Committee, and work with partners at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, we press for fiscal discipline, transparency and greater investment in essential service.
Asked by: Lord Bates (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase levels of UK emergency humanitarian assistance to South Sudan in 2026-2027.
Answered by Baroness Winterton of Doncaster - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains committed to supporting peace, stability and the humanitarian response in South Sudan. As a leading donor, the UK is providing £72 million of aid to South Sudan this financial year, supporting humanitarian assistance, resilience and livelihoods, peacebuilding, health and education. This funding also supports community-led peace initiatives which strengthen conflict prevention and resolution through our South Sudan Peacebuilding Programme.
We remain ready to respond to emerging risks. This includes a £500,000 contribution to the World Health Organization to strengthen South Sudan's Ebola preparedness through improving surveillance, case detection and emergency response capacity. We continue to call on South Sudan's leadership to invest in its people. Through our co-chairmanship of the South Sudan Public Financial Management Oversight Committee, and work with partners at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, we press for fiscal discipline, transparency and greater investment in essential service.
Asked by: Lord Bates (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what peacebuilding initiatives they are supporting in South Sudan.
Answered by Baroness Winterton of Doncaster - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains committed to supporting peace, stability and the humanitarian response in South Sudan. As a leading donor, the UK is providing £72 million of aid to South Sudan this financial year, supporting humanitarian assistance, resilience and livelihoods, peacebuilding, health and education. This funding also supports community-led peace initiatives which strengthen conflict prevention and resolution through our South Sudan Peacebuilding Programme.
We remain ready to respond to emerging risks. This includes a £500,000 contribution to the World Health Organization to strengthen South Sudan's Ebola preparedness through improving surveillance, case detection and emergency response capacity. We continue to call on South Sudan's leadership to invest in its people. Through our co-chairmanship of the South Sudan Public Financial Management Oversight Committee, and work with partners at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, we press for fiscal discipline, transparency and greater investment in essential service.
Asked by: Lord Bates (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the reduction in bilateral official development assistance to countries experiencing prolonged humanitarian crises.
Answered by Lord Wood of Anfield - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is prioritising Official Development Assistance (ODA) where humanitarian needs are most acute - to reach those in greatest need and reduce the harm caused by violence and atrocities, including in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan. With greater instability, humanitarian need growing, and poverty becoming more concentrated in places affected by conflict, we are increasing the proportion of spending in fragile and conflict affected states by around 13 percentage points to over 70 per cent of all FCDO country and regional spending by 2028/29, and will spend £1.4 billion per year in countries with the most humanitarian need over this Spending Review period. With this support, we want to see increased allocation of humanitarian resources to cost-effective, localised delivery mechanisms; and a more streamlined, prioritised and efficient multilateral humanitarian system.
Asked by: Lord Bates (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what their priorities are for humanitarian interventions to support fragile and conflict affected states.
Answered by Lord Wood of Anfield - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is prioritising Official Development Assistance (ODA) where humanitarian needs are most acute - to reach those in greatest need and reduce the harm caused by violence and atrocities, including in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan. With greater instability, humanitarian need growing, and poverty becoming more concentrated in places affected by conflict, we are increasing the proportion of spending in fragile and conflict affected states by around 13 percentage points to over 70 per cent of all FCDO country and regional spending by 2028/29, and will spend £1.4 billion per year in countries with the most humanitarian need over this Spending Review period. With this support, we want to see increased allocation of humanitarian resources to cost-effective, localised delivery mechanisms; and a more streamlined, prioritised and efficient multilateral humanitarian system.
Asked by: Lord Bates (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the planned reduction in spending on official development assistance from 0.5 per cent of gross national income to 0.3 per cent.
Answered by Lord Wood of Anfield - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is prioritising Official Development Assistance (ODA) where humanitarian needs are most acute - to reach those in greatest need and reduce the harm caused by violence and atrocities, including in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan. With greater instability, humanitarian need growing, and poverty becoming more concentrated in places affected by conflict, we are increasing the proportion of spending in fragile and conflict affected states by around 13 percentage points to over 70 per cent of all FCDO country and regional spending by 2028/29, and will spend £1.4 billion per year in countries with the most humanitarian need over this Spending Review period. With this support, we want to see increased allocation of humanitarian resources to cost-effective, localised delivery mechanisms; and a more streamlined, prioritised and efficient multilateral humanitarian system.
Asked by: Lord Bates (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the current UK contribution to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Sudan humanitarian needs action plan.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington
The UK is providing £146 million in aid to Sudan this financial year (FY26/27), providing life-saving assistance to nearly 2 million people affected by the conflict. The UN's 'Sudan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026' provides an overall assessment of humanitarian needs throughout the country with details of financial requirements across 12 sectors (education, health, nutrition, emergency shelter etc.) All of the UK's humanitarian funding to Sudan in FY 26/27 is targeted at needs identified by the UN in its Sudan response plan. UK funding is provided to a range of partners - UN and non-UN - who are working to alleviate suffering in Sudan, including local responders operating in the hardest to reach areas.
Asked by: Lord Bates (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Chapman of Darlington on 23 February (HLWS1349), how much Official Development Assistance will be allocated to (1) the Media Freedom Coalition, and (2) the Public Interest Media and Healthy Information Environments programme, in (a) 2026–27, (b) 2027–28, and (c) 2028–29.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington
I refer the Noble Lord to the statements made by the Foreign Secretary and myself - UIN HLWS1431 - on 19 March outlining the UK's Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocations for the period up to 2028-29, and to the accompanying documents setting out the detail of those allocations. Funding for specific organisations over the period in question will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bates (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the prime beneficiaries of UK aid are women and children.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington
The UK is committed to putting women and girls at the heart of everything we do, including our development spending. The Foreign Secretary recently announced that women and girls will be a central theme across all the FCDO's work - including development. She also announced a new target that at least 90 per cent of our bilateral Official Development Assistance programmes will have a focus on women and girls by 2030.
Asked by: Lord Bates (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what contribution from the UK aid budget they intend to make to the Global Humanitarian Overview 2026 Appeal launched by the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington
I refer the Hon Member to the statement made to the House by the Foreign Secretary on 19 March outlining the UK's Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocations for the period up to 2028-29, HLWS1431, and the accompanying documentation setting out the impact of those allocation decisions. I also refer him to the evidence provided by the Foreign Secretary and I to the International Development Committee on 24 March, where we addressed questions at length about the Government's ODA policies and allocation decision: https://committees.parliament.uk/event/26907/formal-meeting-oral-evidence-session/.