Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding her Department is providing for the Trans African Pipeline; and with what countries her Department is co-operating on improvements to irrigation across the Sahel and contiguous areas.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID is monitoring the Trans Africa Pipeline initiative but has not provided any direct support. DFID has provided £56 million to build resilience and adaptation to climate extremes and disasters in the Sahel since 2013. This has included support to improving irrigation through providing solar water pumps for small scale irrigation, and wells and boreholes in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding her Department provides for the Great Green Wall across the Sahel.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID funds activities to address land degradation, including the Great Green Wall across the Sahel, through our support to the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Total UK support to the GEF between 2014 and 2018 was £210 million, with DFID providing £168 million and Defra providing £42 million of this amount. Over £4.8 million has been spent by the GEF on the Great Green Wall initiative, 9 percent or £432 thousand of this is funded by the UK contributions. The World Bank and the EU have also funded projects in line with the Great Green Wall, and the UK funds these multilateral organisations.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support civil society capacity-building programmes in South Sudan.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
Civil Society Organisations have an important role to play in South Sudan by holding the Government and other actors to account. The UK continues to support civil society peace-building initiatives in South Sudan, including by providing funding to the South Sudanese Council of Churches (SSCC). The SSCC, which comprises the seven main churches, have developed an Action Plan for Peace. This includes reconciliation and mediation efforts, and support for inclusive dialogue within and across communities. UK funding is enabling the SSCC to lead mediation and reconciliation efforts between national level leaders who have the power to stop the ongoing conflict in South Sudan.
More widely, the UK is working to empower non-armed actors in South Sudan to participate effectively in the High Level Revitalisation Forum (HLRF), including work with local peacebuilding organisations. We welcomed the involvement of representatives from South Sudanese civil society in the first round of the HLRF in December, and encourage their continued inclusion as the process progresses.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has to hold discussions with the South Sudan Leaders Forum to encourage better representation of young people in South Sudan.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
UK officials engage regularly with the South Sudan Young Leaders Forum. We continue to consider how the UK can best lend support to the youth of South Sudan, including the Forum, to contribute to long term peace and stability.
More widely, we have consistently called for the inclusion of a broad range of civil society actors in the High Level Revitalisation Forum (HLRF), including representatives of South Sudanese youth groups. We welcomed the involvement of South Sudanese civil society groups in the first round of the HLRF in December, and encourage their continued inclusion as the process progresses.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to increase literacy in South Sudan.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The UK is the leading donor in education services to the people of South Sudan. Through the Girls’ Education South Sudan Programme, the UK supports over 3,500 schools to deliver basic education, including literacy, and is helping to keep up to a quarter of a million girls in class. Ensuring the continuity of education for the children of South Sudan will build the essential foundations for future peace and ensure that education is not lost to an entire generation.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to assist with (a) disease reduction and (b) other public health measures in South Sudan.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The UK is a leading contributor to the health sector in South Sudan, helping to deliver almost 8 million patient consultations last year. The UK is the lead donor to the Health Pooled Fund (HPF), through which we are supporting over 1,000 frontline health centres across South Sudan to improve access to quality health services, including preventing the spread of disease through routine immunisations for children. Last year, the HPF provided almost 5.4 million health consultations to children under 5. Other public health measures include UK funding for the Integrated Community Case Management programme to better identify and treat the main causes of child mortality in local communities.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assistance her Department has provided to Puerto Rico to assist with the reconnection of water and electricity as a result of the storms of September 2017.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
Puerto Rico is an American territory, and, as such, was not a focus of our relief and recovery efforts. DFID does not have a bilateral aid programme or presence there.
In response to Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the UK has provided over £185m of humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to our Overseas Territories and independent Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what measures her Department has put in place to assist children recovered from abduction in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID provides assistance to children recovered from abduction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by supporting child protection interventions through our £175million humanitarian programme. The United Nations Children’s Funds and the International Committee for the Red Cross are our key partners implementing child protection services, particularly in Kasai Centrale and Kasai Orientale. Their support includes identification, documentation, family tracing and reunification, recreational support, child friendly spaces and individual psychosocial support. In 2017 DFID helped 474 children exit from militias or detention centres and reunited 88 children with their families.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, in which countries in Africa has her Department commissioned work from (a) the Adam Smith Institute and (b) the Legatum Institute in the last three years; and what the nature of that work is.
Answered by Rory Stewart
DFID has not directly commissioned any work from the Adam Smith Institute or the Legatum Institute in the last three years.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department has programmes to promote gender equality in (a) Pakistan and (b) Bangladesh.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Through our programmes in Pakistan we are supporting women and girls to live healthy and secure lives. This includes supporting girls through education, improving maternal health and providing economic opportunities though access to micro-finance and skills training. We are also supporting the rollout and implementation of new legislation to protect women and strengthen their rights, and increasing women’s involvement in decision making at all levels.
Activities to tackle inequality and promote empowerment are embedded across all our bilateral programmes in Bangladesh. As well as providing direct support in areas like education, health, livelihoods and nutrition, we support programmes designed to tackle social norms that result in gender-based violence and early marriage, including working with men and boys, and programmes that ensure access to security and justice.