Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps the Department for International Development is taking to reach the ambition it set out in the 2015 discussion paper <i>Delivering quality education in protracted crises</i>.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The UK has played a leading role in the development of Education Cannot Wait, a new fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. The fund is designed to address many of the issues identified in the 2015 discussion paper – such as improving the co-ordination and funding of education in crises, and building evidence and data – with the aim of reaching 13.6 children and young people a year living in protracted crises and emergency affected countries by 2021.
The Secretary of State has recently announced a multi-year commitment of £30 million to the fund at the World Humanitarian Summit on 23rd May, as a founding donor to this important initiative.
Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps the Department for International Development is taking to encourage other donors to fund the Education Cannot Wait fund at its launch at the World Humanitarian Summit.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The UK is working closely with UNICEF and other partners to encourage a broad funding base to Education Cannot Wait, including funding from non-traditional donors, private sector and philanthropic organisations. This includes via UK technical support to the fund’s case for investment and other key communication and outreach products, to raise awareness of the fund with others.
Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will outline a timetable under which the Department for International Development will work towards achieving the recommendation by the House of Commons International Development Select Committee in its Report <i>Disability and development</i> (HC Paper 947, 2013–14) to report results disaggregated by disability across all sectors of the Department’s work, including but not limited to the humanitarian sector.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
In its response to the IDC recommendations DFID did not commit to report results disaggregated by disability across all sectors of the Department’s work.
DFID is nevertheless committed to improving data on disability. Our priority in this area is to strengthen national governments' ability to collect, analyse and use data in the countries in which we work at a national, regional and local level, and in different sectors. This information will be used to inform national level results frameworks and reporting against future international development goals. To do this, DFID made a new commitment in September 2013 to advocate the use of the Washington Group questions on disability wherever possible in DFID-supported national censuses and household surveys, and to champion their use with other donors.
As the IDC recognises, collecting disaggregated data at the programme level is difficult. DFID will make disaggregated data on age and disability part of our requirements for funding humanitarian proposals. DFID's broader approach is to identify programmes with a specific focus on disability at the design phase, and to monitor this inclusion throughout the programme management cycle.
Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures to improve reporting and accountability on the inclusion of disabled people will be part of the strengthened systems that the Department for International Development committed to put in place in the response to the House of Commons International Development Select Committee’s Report <i>Disability and Development </i>(HC Paper 947, 2013–14).
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
As part of our International Development Committee hearing commitments, DFID is in the process of developing a framework for further strengthening disability inclusion across the department. This will set out our clear commitment, approach and actions to strengthening disability in our policy, programme and international work. It will also include an explanation of how we will strengthen departmental capability on disability, how we will influence our partners to do more, and a timeframe for taking forward the activities outlined in our response to the IDC recommendations.