Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions she has had with the EU on continuing co-operation on international development after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
We are seeking a future partnership with the EU on international development to tackle shared global challenges in areas where it is in our mutual interest and represents the best value for taxpayers’ money. The Secretary of State and other DFID Ministers have discussed our future partnership with counterparts in the Commission during bilateral meetings and in the margins of international events. Any future UK participation in EU development programmes would require appropriate influence and oversight over UK funds and eligibility for UK organisations to bid for and to implement any UK funded programmes.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions she has had with the Ugandan Government on tackling female genital mutilation in that country.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
Through UK’s Support to Uganda’s Response to Gender Equality programme, engagements are held with Government of Uganda to support efforts to eliminate female genital mutilation. Efforts focus on securing stronger commitment on implementation of the anti-female genital mutilation law, prosecution of female genital mutilation and related cases, provision of efficient and quality protection and response services, and encouraging cross border discussions with the government of Kenya which has yet to outlaw female genital mutilation
Alongside the policy engagement we support capacity strengthening for local police officers, health workers, selected district local government staff and local council committees. This is targeted at the affected regions, so they further appreciate the dangers of female genital mutilation and violence against women and girls and spearhead social norm change.
The Secretary of State recently announced an extra £50 million to support the African led movement to end female genital mutilation. This will provide better protection for vulnerable girls in some of the world’s poorest countries, including Uganda. It also provides an opportunity for further engagement and influencing critical reforms within government of Uganda to drive down FGM, gender and social inequality.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what (a) discussions have been held and (b) agreements have been reached with international partners on responding to the displacement of people in Syria.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID is supporting the UN, NGOs and other partners to deliver life-saving assistance to Syrians, including those who are internally displaced, by providing food, healthcare, water and other life-saving relief.
With our international partners, the UK continues to use our position in the UN Security Council and the International Syria Support Group to advocate for the protection of civilians, and calls on all parties to allow humanitarian agencies unfettered access to deliver aid to those most in need.
We monitor ongoing displacement across Syria, and maintain close contact with other donors and our humanitarian partners to ensure our programmes are supporting those most in need.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions her Department has had with the Lebanese Government on the access of Syrian refugees to (a) residency, (b) the labour market and (c) education in that country.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK helps Lebanon to meet the humanitarian needs of Syrian refugees and vulnerable host communities; supporting Lebanon’s fragile economy, including by investing in job opportunities for Syrians and Lebanese and providing quality education to all children in Lebanon. DFID Ministers and officials from both the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development regularly raise the issues of access for refugees to residency documents, jobs and educational opportunities with the Government of Lebanon, most recently during my visit to Lebanon on 28 and 29 June during which I met President Aoun, Prime Minister Hariri, and Foreign Minister Bassil.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of fraud in the expenditure of Official Development Aid in the last five years.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The Department for International Development has zero tolerance to any incidents of fraud and corruption and has developed robust systems to identify and mitigate those risks, at all levels. The department retains information on all suspected and confirmed cases of fraud and corruption and this information is regularly reviewed to identify anomalies and trends. This insight is shared internally on a regular basis and used to drive a risk-based and proactive approach to fraud across the portfolio.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what representations her Department has made to the EU on fraud in relation to EU overseas development assistance in the last five years.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
Following the 2016 Multilateral Development Review, it was found that EuropeAid has systems and policies in place to tackle fraud and corruption. Since its publication, DFID officials have met with the European Commission and OLAF to discuss best practice, with a focus on staff awareness of their responsibilities in identifying and raising fraud and corruption concerns.
DFID’s dedicated specialist Counter Fraud Section (CFS) is focused on stamping out fraud before it occurs. CFS work in partnership with a number of International agencies including OLAF (European Anti-fraud Office), through an established information sharing agreement. This is used to share intelligence on activities that could impact on overseas development assistance.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of the UK's gross national income which has been invested in overseas aid in each of the last 10 years; and what comparative estimate her Department has made of those proportions and the proportions spent by other EU countries.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The proportion of the UK’s gross national income spent on official development assistance (ODA) in each of the last 10 years is given in the table below. The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) publish statistics on the proportions spent by the UK and other donors and the latest data is found with this link http://www.oecd.org/dac/financing-sustainable-development/development-finance-data/
Table: UK ODA as a percentage of UK GNI, 2008-2017
Year | ODA/GNI % |
2008 | 0.43 |
2009 | 0.51 |
2010 | 0.57 |
2011 | 0.56 |
2012 | 0.57 |
2013 | 0.70 |
2014 | 0.70 |
2015 | 0.70 |
2016R | 0.70 |
2017P | 0.70 |
R: revised from previously published.
P: based on provisional ODA spend for 2017
Source: Statistics on International Development
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what aid the UK has given to the authorities in Papua New Guinea as a result of the recent earthquake.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK Government has been monitoring the situation in Papua New Guinea since the earthquake on 25 February, in close contact with our counterparts in Australia and New Zealand, who are leading on the well-resourced regional response. DFID has offered support with a child protection psychosocial expert for UNICEF for three months to help children, young people and their families affected by the earthquake.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the planned outcomes are from increased public investment in the UK global education fund.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The UK Government is leading the way in providing quality education for children around the world. On 2 February the International Development Secretary attended the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) replenishment conference in Dakar, where she announced that the UK would contribute £225m to the next phase of GPE.
This means that our annual contribution to the GPE will increase by almost 50% to £75m per year. The funding will be used to keep 880,000 children in school each year for three years - over half of whom will be in fragile or conflict affected states; train 170,000 teachers; build 2400 new classrooms; and distribute more than 20 million new textbooks. We will continue to drive improvements to GPE delivery and 30% of our funding will be conditional on results.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of total EU member states' aid the UK aid funding represents.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Every pound of aid the UK spends through EU institutions is matched by over £6 from other Member States.