Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken, if any, to support African countries in manufacturing ventilators.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
UK funding for the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF is helping them work with governments to identify requirements and ensure supplies reach those in need, including the critical medical equipment for oxygen therapy. Ventilators are one part of a wider oxygen therapy package, as illustrated in the WHO emergency global supply chain catalogue.
Since mid-March, DFID’s Frontier Technologies Hub has been leading a project called COVIDaction in collaboration with the UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering, to identify frugal innovation in a range of COVID-19 areas, which included an early focus on ventilators and oxygen therapy, designed for emerging markets that can be used globally in the fight against COVID-19. Designs used in resource constrained environments could be adapted for rapid manufacturing because they are often easier and cheaper to build and are often designed to be operated without highly specialist medical training. This initial work has fed into the UK Ventilator Challenge and has also highlighted the importance that any ventilators used or manufactured locally for low resource developing countries healthcare systems, are proven as safe and effective for use for COVID-19 patients and meet the most recent WHO specifications and relevant medical device regulatory approvals.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the outbreak of disease with Ebola-like symptoms in Tanzania.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK takes the threat of Ebola and other infectious diseases extremely seriously. We are one of the leading donors to the response to the Ebola outbreak in the DRC and to help prepare other countries in the region, including Tanzania, to prevent the spread of this deadly disease.
UK Travel Advice was updated on 1 October to reflect that a person died in Tanzania in September 2019 of probable Ebola. We stand ready to provide assistance to British nationals if required.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, with UNESCO, to raise global education standards.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
In alignment with the Global Goal for education (SDG4), DFID is helping tackle the learning crisis: millions of children unable to read and do maths despite years at school. DFID works to strengthen the quality of education and the effectiveness of education systems so that all children have access and opportunity to learn.
UNESCO is the UN’s specialized agency for education and UN lead on SDG4. DFID works with UNESCO towards our shared goal of ensuring quality education for all. DFID provides a voluntary contribution of £7.8m to support the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) and the UNESCO published Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report). The UIS provides comparable, publicly available data on learning outcomes. The GEM Report is an independent, policy focused monitoring report, it is a key tool for pushing progress towards the Global Goals.
Our support to the UIS and the GEM Report is being used to create vital data, evidence and tools to assess whether children are learning, who is being left behind and whether SDG4 is being achieved. It allows the international community to report progress on SDG4 education indicators on learning and equity and enables policy makers to know whether SDG4 is on track and where to direct policy intervention.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the European Commission’s new disclaimer for aid contracts, which states that if the UK withdraws from the EU without concluding a withdrawal agreement that ensures that UK applicants continue to be eligible, then UK charities will cease to receive EU funding.
Answered by Lord Bates
We are clear that this disclaimer must be removed by the European Commission. As it stands, they are hindering British aid organisations’ ability to deliver the common goal of alleviating poverty, which would hit the world’s poorest people hardest.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to continue to contribute to EU overseas aid projects in order to meet their spending commitments on overseas development aid.
Answered by Lord Bates
We believe it makes sense for the UK and EU, as leading global donors, to continue working together to alleviate poverty and to tackle shared global challenges. The UK is open to pooling resources with the EU, either through EU instruments or a bespoke mechanism, drawing on collective expertise to tackle specific global challenges and improve our combined impact. We have identified some specific thematic areas where we think a UK-EU strategic partnership would be in our mutual interest, such as humanitarian aid, migration and peace and security. In return for any UK participation (or funds) we would expect that the UK have an appropriate governance role at the strategic and operational level, and eligibility for UK entities to implement relevant programmes.
It is also important to remember that the vast majority of the UK Development work is not done via the EU. We remain committed to spending 0.7% of GNI on development by working through other multilateral and bilateral delivery channels, and achieving the Global Goals by 2030. Post EU Exit we will be able to better target UK aid to the poorest people in the world and in the best interest of UK taxpayers; and improve on the EU’s trade offer for developing countries
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the UK, along with the other countries that have committed to the Sustainable Development Goals, delivers clean water for all by 2030.
Answered by Baroness Verma
In the UK Aid Strategy published in November 2015, we committed to help 60 million people get access to clean water and sanitation in support of goal 6 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
We will achieve this target through projects managed by our Country Offices, the Department for International Development offices based in the UK and through our contributions to multilateral organisations such as the World Bank. We will continue to invest in country and regional programmes to improve water resources management, water efficiency and improve water quality.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to support the UN Secretary-General’s first high-level panel on women’s economic empowerment.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The High Level Panel on women’s economic empowerment, convened by the UN Secretary General, will bring together leading politicians, expert economists, leaders from business and civil society to lead a step change in improving economic opportunities and choices for women and girls globally.
The Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening, is a founding member of the Panel. In addition to our policy and technical inputs, DFID will also provide support for the Panel’s independent Secretariat to conduct a global consultation process, produce a research synthesis, and build momentum around tangible actions to unleash the full global potential of women’s economic power.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take, if any, to support the campaign launched by Dell for the post-2015 UN development agenda to promote sustainable development through entrepreneurship.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The UK has played a key role in the negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals and fully supports the Open Working Group proposal which will be formally agreed at the UN summit later this month. DFID runs a range of programmes to support entrepreneurs, including working with business action groups, providing support to improve the investment climate for small businesses and hosting challenge funds to which entrepreneurs can apply to for grants.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to improve aid for migrants fleeing war, oppression and poverty, in the light of the events at Calais on 24 June.
Answered by Baroness Verma
We are taking a comprehensive approach to the migrant crisis. A vital part of this response must be to stabilise the source countries from which migrants are fleeing, including through provision of more jobs and livelihood opportunities reducing poverty and the pressure to migrate. In the long-term, development assistance addresses the root causes of instability and insecurity, reducing inequality and providing economic opportunities for all. To this end, DFID is investing £1.8 billion on economic development globally in 2015/16.