Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had, or plan to have, with the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization about ensuring that their water programmes are coordinated.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK, represented by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and the Met Office, is actively involved in helping to steer the water related activities of both organizations through its Memberships of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) Council, the WMO Executive Council and the WMO Hydrological Coordination Panel.
Within UNESCO, as former Vice-Chairs of the IHP and current Council Members, we are making efforts to influence current planning for the Ninth Phase of the Programme, which is due to commence in 2022. A key area of focus for UK input has been to encourage UNESCO to reach out to partners across the UN-system and more broadly in the planning and implementation of the next phase.
In doing so we are encouraging not only coordination through bilateral links and UN-Water, which the UK Government helped establish in 2006, but exploration of the potential benefit of establishing further joint initiatives between organizations in order to provide integrated support to Members’ efforts towards the water related Sustainable Development Goals. This push towards joint working is being replicated in the positions being taken with respect to WMO’s water activities, including their transformation under the Organization’s ongoing reforms.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for the United Kingdom continuing to remain a member of UNESCO.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK remains a member of UNESCO and there has been no change to this position. The UK is committed to ensuring UK aid goes to the highest-performing multilateral agencies. We make ongoing assessments of multilateral agency performance, consideration of whether Agencies are providing value for tax payers’ money is an important part of these assessments.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment have they made of the effectiveness of the Department for International Development being responsible for the UK's membership of UNESCO, given that UNESCO aims to promote peace through international cooperation in education, sciences and culture.
Answered by Lord Bates
UNESCO’s mandate and work is wide-reaching, ranging from leading the delivery of SDG 4 (Education) to reviving the city of Mosul and administering the Global Tsunami Warning System. DFID is well placed to act as the lead department for UNESCO within HMG and will continue to do so.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken with other countries and UN agencies, including the World Meteorological Organisation, to help restore water to the rivers and ground water resources in war torn countries in the Middle East.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK Government is working closely with partners, including UN agencies, to improve access to and management of water resources in a number of Middle Eastern countries.
Examples include:
- Technical support for national policy and planning on water resources in Syria, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Jordan.
- Support for water resources management in Yemen, through the World Bank’s Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience.
- Working with UNICEF in Jordan to improve access to safe water and sanitation facilities for Syrian refugees and vulnerable Jordanians.
- Supporting the Water Authority of Jordan carry out urgently needed improvement of the wastewater system’s operational capacity, by building a new wastewater conveyor (redundancy pipe) benefitting a total of 2.3 million people.
- Support to the construction of the Central Gaza Desalination Plant and upgrading of the water distribution network in Gaza.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to focus economic and technical assistance to those developing countries in the tropics that are experiencing the most adverse effects of climate change.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK Government has committed to provide £5.8bn of Official Development Assistance as International Climate Finance (ICF) between April 2016 and March 2021, including to many of the countries in the tropics.
UK assistance helps the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people to build resilience and cope with the impacts of climate change, move to a low carbon economy and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve the stewardship of natural resources, especially forests.
UK assistance has already helped 34 million people to cope with the effects of climate change and we will continue to support those who are most in need.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether Department for International Development programmes for development assistance must include measures to limit the global spread of plastic waste and other waste that degrades the environment.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK Government is a global leader in protecting oceans and marine life and has already taken significant steps to tackle plastic waste (such as the carrier bag charge and ban on microbeads in rinse-off products).
The Department for International Development already funds programmes that include measures to limit the global spread of plastic waste and other waste that degrades the environment, for example through the Global Environment Facility. The Global Environment Facility funds the Addressing Marine Plastics programme alongside other international waters, chemicals and waste programming. The Department is currently working with other parts of government to consider how to extend the impact of our work in this area.
In addition, Department for International Development officials are required to identify environmental risks associated with each programme, and ensure that they are managed. The guidance does not explicitly cover plastic waste, but is intended to include the full range of environmental risks relevant to each programme.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures they are taking to support the funding and planning of the infrastructure of Freetown following the flooding in August; and whether they intend to provide support for a programme to train technical experts.
Answered by Lord Bates
Our deepest sympathies are with the people of Sierra Leone affected by the mudslide and flooding. The UK allocated £5m for emergency power and clean water, and to clear waterways to prevent further flooding.
Since Ebola, DFID has provided clean water and sanitation to over 500,000 people, including through new boreholes across Freetown. We are upgrading power supplies and doubling the number of households with access to solar energy. This support includes technical training for local workers, which will improve their ability to respond in times of crisis. The World Bank and UN are assisting the government to develop a long term strategy for urban planning, and we are working closely with them to assess the city’s longer term housing needs.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their policy for the prioritisation and funding of the future programmes of UNESCO, in the light of the decision of the United States to terminate its membership; and whether they will urge the United States to rejoin.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK is deeply committed to the vital issues that UNESCO works on. But we have been crystal clear that we expect serious reform from UNESCO as an organisation. The 2016 Multilateral Development Review scored UNESCO lowest of all the agencies. This is not good enough. We will relentlessly keep up the pressure to drive up performance – and in particular to address serious concerns about financial and risk management.
The US’s relationship with UNESCO is a matter for them.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits of supporting the installation of assisted natural ventilation in hospitals in developing countries, particularly in relation to (1) energy costs, (2) the spread of infection, and (3) electrical resilience.
Answered by Lord Bates
DFID does not generally invest directly in hospitals, although we do support investment in strengthening health systems in developing countries. We recognise the benefits of using well designed natural ventilation where appropriate, including to reduce energy costs and prevent the spread of infection, as set out in World Health Organisation guidance on standards of infection control in health facilities. This provides advice on natural ventilation for infection control, allowing the creation of affordable and sustainable healthcare facilities that are safe for patients and healthcare workers.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether UK government agencies were providing remote sensing data to detect, forecast and provide warning of the recent earthquakes in Afghanistan to the affected communities and government agencies.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The science is clear on this matter - earthquakes cannot be forecast with any degree of reliability. Remote sensing does exist, but can only operate in extremely technically sophisticated environments, and even then can only provide limited warning of a few seconds or minutes in which to respond. As such the UK Government does not provide remote sensing data to detect, forecast, and provide warning of earthquakes in Afghanistan.
When it comes to other forms of natural disaster, DFID funds a resilience and disaster risk reduction programme in Afghanistan which provides £9.6m over four years (2015-18) to an NGO consortium called Afghanistan Resilience Consortium (ARC). Implementation is focused in the eight northern provinces of Afghanistan which are the most disaster prone.