Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assistance her Department is giving Libya in terms of medical and food aid.
Answered by Alistair Burt
From 2017 to 2019, DFID are partnering with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to improve access to quality medical care services for people in the cities of Tripoli, Benghazi and Sabha. The WHO aim to reach 3.6m indirect beneficiaries through DFID’s £2m contribution. This will improve medical access for Libyans, including internally displaced persons, and migrants. The distribution of life-saving medication to health centres began in May 2018.
DFID has also contributed to the 2017 and 2018 International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) appeals. Through multi donor support ICRC aim to provide 408,000 people in Libya with food, and provide medical supplies to support 16 health centres and 6 hospitals in 2018. DFID’s £1m contribution will assist ICRC in distributing food and medical supplies to vulnerable people in Libya.
As part of our new £75m migration programme, DFID has committed up to £5m of further assistance in Libya. This is expected to include health care provision for migrants and other assistance and protection activities.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what processes her Department has in place to monitor the delivery and spending of UK aid in the Palestinian Territories.
Answered by Alistair Burt
As for all DFID programmes, officials regularly monitor and review our programmes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) to ensure they are delivering results and that UK aid reaches the intended beneficiaries and achieves the best development outcomes, with a strong focus on ensuring value for money for the UK taxpayer. The processes in place include comprehensive annual reviews and project completion reports. These reviews are available on the DFID Development Tracker at https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/. DFID has due diligence assessment processes to provide assurance over the expenditure of our funds, and DFID’s project spending in the OPTs is subject to annual, independent financial audit. The overall programme is also subject to the regular audit cycle of DFID’s Internal Audit Department and the National Audit Office. DFID has a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and has robust controls against diversion of aid to terrorist groups.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how her Department works in cooperation with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to ensure that UK aid to the Palestinians facilitates peace-building with Israel.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Our financial assistance to the Occupied Palestinian Territories helps to maintain stability and is underpinned by HMG’s long-standing objective that the only way to allow Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace is through a negotiated two-state solution. As joint-Minister for the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, I ensure that my officials liaise closely to deliver development programmes in support of a two-state solution which requires collaborating equally with the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Authority.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department is giving to Christians in Northern Iraq and Syria to help with relocation and rebuilding of church property.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Humanitarian and reconstruction needs in both Syria and in Iraq are amongst the most severe in the world, and we must accordingly prioritise carefully to ensure we reach the most vulnerable people, including Christians. UK funding is distributed on the basis of need, to ensure civilians are not discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, or ethnicity.
In Syria, while the conflict is ongoing, our priority is to deliver immediate, life-saving humanitarian aid to those affected.
In addition to our highly-targeted humanitarian funding in Iraq, we have to date contributed £14.45 million to the UN’s Funding Facility for Stabilisation (FFS), to help the Iraqi government re-establish basic services in areas of return, such as Northern Iraq. The FFS is currently implementing over 200 projects in areas where Christian communities reside. These projects have been targeted at the most acute stabilisation needs, for example to ensure that Iraqis liberated from Daesh can access clean water and basic healthcare; to date projects have not included the relocation or rebuilding of church property.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding her Department provides to support programmes to improve the economy of Egypt.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK is helping to address Egypt’s economic and demographic challenges as part of our support for the transition to long-term stability in North Africa. The DFID/FCO North Africa Joint Unit is responsible for assistance provided through the Conflict, Security and Stability Fund. This includes a £15 million partnership with the World Bank from 2016-2020 to create jobs and promote social inclusion; and a £2 million partnership with the International Finance Corporation over 2017-2020 to help support Egyptian start-ups and entrepreneurs. We are providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Finance and other parts of the Egyptian Government to help implement economic reforms. We are also planning to fund research into economic reform policy in Egypt.
In 2017 DFID provided a $150 million guarantee to the World Bank for a $1.15bn Development Policy Loan to Egypt, focused on supporting economic reform and promoting jobs and inclusive growth in Egypt. DFID also funds the Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF) in partnership with the Islamic Development Bank (each providing £10 million for the region). Over five years (2015-2020), AWEF’s goal is to improve the income and well-being of 150,000 women across Egypt and Jordan by addressing systematic barriers facing different sectors of the economy. The fund has a target of 120,000 direct and indirect women beneficiaries in Egypt.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department is providing to projects facilitating peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK is providing support to fund a people-to-people programme to help Israelis and Palestinians work together to achieve tangible improvements in their lives, foster inter-community understanding and help build constituencies for a just and peaceful political solution. This three year programme – People for Peaceful Change – will facilitate interaction between youth leaders, religious communities and strengthen co-operation in the health sector. Ultimately the only way to achieve coexistence is through a negotiated two-state solution that ends the occupation and delivers peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how her Department monitors the delivery and spending of UK aid in the Palestinian Territories.
Answered by Alistair Burt
As for all DFID programmes, officials regularly monitor and review our programmes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) to ensure they are delivering results and that UK aid reaches the intended beneficiaries and achieves the best development outcomes, with a strong focus on ensuring value for money for the UK taxpayer. This includes comprehensive annual reviews and project completion reports. These reviews are available on the DFID Development Tracker at https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/. DFID has due diligence assessment processes to provide assurance over the expenditure of our funds, and DFID’s OPTs spending is subject to regular auditing by DFID’s Internal Audit Department and the UK National Audit Office. We have strong controls in place to monitor spending, including mapping the flow of funds to beneficiaries, regular audits of programme spending and where required, tight earmarking of funds. DFID has a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and has robust controls against diversion of aid to terrorist groups.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure that aid to the Palestinian Authority does not fund radicalisation.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Our partnership with the Palestinian Authority (PA) includes a commitment from the Palestinian leadership to adhere to the principle of non-violence and to tackle language and actions that could incite violence or hatred; I recently urged Palestinian Ministers to remain focused on this. UK financial aid to the PA is provided through the European Union (EU) Palestinian-European Socio-Economic Management Assistance Mechanism (PEGASE) mechanism, contributing to the salaries of vetted public servants in the health and education sectors. Only named public servants from a pre-approved EU list are eligible, and the vetting process includes screening against international and ad hoc sanctions lists designed to prevent terrorism financing.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support she is providing to the Government of Jordan to assist with accommodating Iraqi refugees.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK has committed £441 million to support Jordan since the start of the Syria crisis. To meet humanitarian needs the UK is supporting the provision of essential services such as health and water and sanitation, and, alongside humanitarian assistance providing support to job creation and education – helping to ensure that all children can access education regardless of nationality.
UK assistance to all refugees and displaced persons is provided on the basis of need, irrespective of nationality. This is in line with international humanitarian principles, ensuring aid reaches the most vulnerable.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions her Department has had with Aid to the Church in Need on deliveries of food and aid to Christian and other communities in Syria.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Aid to the Church in Need is not a DFID partner in Syria, and we have no record of any discussions with them on the humanitarian response to the crisis in Syria.