Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the role of Tunisia in promoting security along the Mediterranean littoral of northern Africa.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK is aware of the increasing numbers of irregular migrants crossing from Tunisia to Europe. We work with the Tunisian Government to help improve their border security, including through the provision of Royal Navy and Royal Marine instructors to assist the Tunisian National Guard Maritime section. More broadly, the UK Government actively pursues a 'whole of route' approach to addressing unmanaged migration from Africa to Europe, tackling the drivers of migration that encourage people to undertake the dangerous journey in the first place.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to support educational aid and assistance to Tunisia.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK is a global leader in education and we see education as a foundation for UK-Tunisian collaboration for the benefit of both the UK and Tunisians. We support education reform in Tunisia through the Global Partnership for Education fund, which recently granted Tunisia $2.3 million to develop their next five-year education strategy. We are also planning to develop a new secondary education project that builds on the achievements of 'Teaching for Success' which trained over 17,000 primary teachers and teaching advisors in improved teaching methods. To enable early school leavers to learn skills for the workplace, the UK funded four 'Second Chance' Education Centres in collaboration with UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the safety of British (1) aid workers, and (2) others, working within Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Nigeria.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The deteriorating humanitarian situation in Nigeria, particularly in the North East, has resulted in 8.3 million people requiring some form of humanitarian assistance. However, growing insecurity presents a high-risk environment for all aid workers as impediments to humanitarian access have increased. As enshrined in International Humanitarian Law, aid workers must never be a target of violence. Our aid programmes in Nigeria support partners to advise on safety and facilitate sustained and unhindered humanitarian access for aid workers, including through our funding for the UN Humanitarian Air Service and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether British aid to Nigeria is conditional on equality of access to that aid from those of all faiths and non in that country.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
UK Government aid is delivered impartially and based on need. We focus our aid investment and expertise on the highest priority issues where we can make the most difference and achieve maximum impact in Nigeria. Everyone has an equal right to UK Government aid regardless of their beliefs. In Nigeria, our humanitarian assistance programme is aligned with the UN Humanitarian Response Plan, which is focused primarily on North East Nigeria, due to the extremely large scale and deep severity of humanitarian needs there.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) press freedoms in Bangladesh, and (2) the extent to which British journalists may freely enter and leave that country.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Bangladesh remains a Human Rights Priority Country for the UK. As the FCDO's 2021 Human Rights and Democracy Report states, press freedom remains restricted in Bangladesh, and we continue to assess that Bangladesh's Digital Security Act has been applied in a repressive manner. Ministers regularly raise human rights issues in public and private with the Government of Bangladesh, including the importance of free media. UK funding has supported objective media coverage of conflict in communities, as well as the training and education of investigative and female journalists in Bangladesh. The UK will continue to engage with the Government of Bangladesh to address these issues, and will support efforts towards a stable, prosperous and democratic Bangladesh. British journalists are able to enter and leave Bangladesh, and the UK Government will raise any incidents of harassment or restrictions on movement with the Government.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the UK aid, if any, given to Bangladesh over the last year.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK was one of the first countries to recognise Bangladesh's independence in 1971, and we celebrated 50 years of diplomatic relations in February 2022. The breadth of the UK-Bangladesh partnership has matured over the last 50 years, and includes trade and investment, defence and security, people-to-people links and cooperation on Rohingya and climate. Bangladesh is a key trading partner, with UK-Bangladesh trade totalling $4.5 billion per year. Bangladesh is an economic and development success story, with an average of 6% GDP growth over the last two decades. In 2021, the UK provided £87.2 million of bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Bangladesh, which contributed towards the Sustainable Development Goals including on humanitarian preparedness and response, women and girls, climate and governance. As Bangladesh works towards graduation from Least Developed Country status in 2026, the UK is proud to stand as a close partner, strengthening ties and building on our shared interests.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of UK-Bangladesh relations.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK was one of the first countries to recognise Bangladesh's independence in 1971, and we celebrated 50 years of diplomatic relations in February 2022. The breadth of the UK-Bangladesh partnership has matured over the last 50 years, and includes trade and investment, defence and security, people-to-people links and cooperation on Rohingya and climate. Bangladesh is a key trading partner, with UK-Bangladesh trade totalling $4.5 billion per year. Bangladesh is an economic and development success story, with an average of 6% GDP growth over the last two decades. In 2021, the UK provided £87.2 million of bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Bangladesh, which contributed towards the Sustainable Development Goals including on humanitarian preparedness and response, women and girls, climate and governance. As Bangladesh works towards graduation from Least Developed Country status in 2026, the UK is proud to stand as a close partner, strengthening ties and building on our shared interests.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the help provided so far to children in Ukraine whose schooling has been interrupted by the conflict in that country; and whether they will change their current level of support to those children.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK has contributed £15 million to UNICEF's appeal for Ukraine and a further £5 million to UNICEF in Moldova. Our support has helped UNICEF provide formal and non-formal education to over 850,000 children, as well as access for Ukrainian women and children to essential services including health, nutrition, and specialist trauma and Gender Based Violence services. Delivery of this assistance is ongoing. An assessment of UNICEF delivery will be published in the Annual Review of the UK's humanitarian support. Decisions on humanitarian spending beyond March 2022, including to education, are to be determined.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the work of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) and its affiliated organisation Caritas Internationalis.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Any partner who is intended to be a direct recipient of FCDO funding must have a documented due diligence assessment in place. A due diligence assessment for a grant recipient determines whether an Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) partner has the capacity and capability to manage programme funds and deliver the programme or project objectives specific to the context. Our records indicate that the legacy departments of the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office conducted due diligence assessments on Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) and Caritas Internationalis; however, our records indicate that there has been no assessment since the departments merged to form the FCDO.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the value for money provided by global multilateral organisations in receipt of funds from the Official Development Assistance budget.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The value for money and performance of multilateral organisations receiving Official Development Assistance (ODA) is continually assessed in FCDO annual reviews and business cases, as well as by the independent Multilateral Organisation Performance Assessment Network (MOPAN), which the UK is a member of. Multilateral ODA offers value for money by providing economies of scale and leveraging private sector investment. The UK's funding to multilateral organisations was reviewed for alignment to UK objectives and organisational effectiveness through the Multilateral Development Review (MDR) in 2016. The Independent Commission for Aid Impact also independently scrutinises the impact of UK ODA to multilaterals, for example reviews of 'The UK support to the World Bank's International Development Association' and 'Tackling fraud in UK aid through multilateral organisations' were completed this year.