Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much and what proportion of Official Development Assistance funding was allocated to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in fragile and conflict-affected states in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Based on the 2023 Word Bank Classification of Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations (FCAS), the "Statistics on International Development: final UK aid spend 2020", and the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) spend methodology laid out in the "Donor Delivering for SRHR" report:
a/ At least 1.07% of UK bilateral ODA was allocated to SRHR in FCAS in 2019.
b/ At least 0.91% of UK bilateral ODA was allocated to SRHR in FCAS in 2020.
c/ Data for 2021 is not available yet.
Note, this excludes bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) spent at regional level. Imputed share of multilateral core funding attributable to SRHR by specific country is not available.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights funding was disbursed by (a) bilateral aid, (b) multilateral aid and (c) other funding mechanisms in each of the last four years.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Based on the "Statistics on International Development: final UK aid spend 2020", and the Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) spend methodology laid out in the "Donor Delivering for SRHR" report:
a/ The total amount of UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) SRHR funding disbursed by bilateral aid was: £439 million in 2018, £515 million in 2019, and £372 million in 2020.
b/ The total amount of UK ODA SRHR funding disbursed by core multilateral aid was: £142 million in 2018, £121 million in 2019, and £142 million in 2020.
c/ There are no other funding mechanism to disburse UK ODA.
Data for 2021 onward is not available yet.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he publish the (a) core and (b) non-core financial contributions to (i) UNFPA and (ii) IPPF in (A) 2018-19, (B) 2019/20 and (C) 2020/21.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Details of Official Development Assistance (ODA) contributions to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) from 2018 to 2020 are published by calendar year in the "Statistics on International Development (SID): final UK aid spend 2020 - Data underlying the SID publication" annex table under "Channel of delivery" here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-final-uk-aid-spend-2020. Smaller partner organisations like IPPF are currently grouped under the "International NGO" label in the SID tables.
However, all ODA contributions to partner organisations are published - within a few months - on the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) under UK aid programmes details. IATI data is fully accessible via multiple platforms such as https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/ or https://d-portal.org/.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what proportion of Official Development Assistance in 2022-23 is allocated to supporting women and girls in fragile and conflict-affected states.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Aid prioritisation decisions will be guided by the new UK International Development Strategy to ensure we address increasing global challenges, deliver investment, support women and girls, get humanitarian assistance to those who need it most and continue our work on climate change, nature, and global health.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department plans to increase the level of Official Development Assistance funding for sexual and reproductive health and rights programmes.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Aid prioritisation decisions will be guided by the new UK International Development Strategy to ensure we address increasing global challenges, deliver investment, support women and girls, get humanitarian assistance to those who need it most and continue our work on climate change, nature, and global health.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much his Department spent on reproductive health under the OECD Development Assistance Committee code (a) 13010, (b) 13021, (c) 13022, (d) 13030 and (e) 13081 in the (i) 2018-19, (ii) 2019-20 and (iii) 2020-21 financial year.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Details of FCDO ODA is published by calendar year, UK extending agency and OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) sector code in the "Statistics on International Development: final UK aid spend" annex tables here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development
FCDO spend (in £) | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
13010 | 4m | 6m | 9m |
13020 | 163m | 150m | 109m |
13030 | 174m | 252m | 164m |
13081 | 17m | 15m | 11m |
Please note "13020" is the official OECD DAC code for both "13021" and "13022". These codes were defined and solely used by xDFID. They did not exist in xFCO spend data and would not provide a complete picture for the FCDO.
Data for 2021 is not available yet.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help support the strengthening of health systems in low- and lower-middle income countries.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
As set out in the International Development Strategy, strengthening health systems is at the core of our long-term approach and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is working to deliver the objectives set out in our published Health Systems Strengthening policy paper. This includes the mainstreaming of a health systems strengthening approach across the UK's health influencing and diplomacy activities, country programmes, research portfolios, and our investments in multilateral partners such as the World Health Organization, Global Fund and Gavi.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure pandemic preparedness efforts lead to investment in primary healthcare services and the strengthening of routine immunisation services globally.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The UK is shaping discussions on global learning from COVID-19 to improve future pandemic preparedness and response. Strengthening health systems is core, guided by FCDO's Health Systems Strengthening approach paper. The Prime Minister recently announced a £25 million UK contribution to a new "Financial Intermediary Fund" for pandemic preparedness. The UK will champion the importance of increased investment in primary healthcare in the design of this Fund.
The UK is the world's biggest funder of routine childhood vaccination, through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. We are working with partners to help recover the losses in routine immunisation caused by COIVD-19 and to strengthen the health systems that will both improve routine immunisation and provide a solid foundation for responding to the next pandemic.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that backsliding in immunisation is a priority issue at the upcoming 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly and the G20 Heads of State and Government Summit.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The pandemic has placed substantial strain on immunisation programmes, with increasing numbers of children not receiving even the most basic vaccinations. The UK is the top donor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance's core mission. £1.65 billion of UK funding in 2021-25 will support countries to restore immunisation coverage and vaccinate children missed during the pandemic.
UNGA 77 and the G20 Summit represent important opportunities to maintain momentum and secure political commitments on global health. The UK will continue through both fora to champion health system strengthening and the critical role of strong, resilient and accessible health systems in supporting primary health care and essential services, including routine immunisation.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to help small-scale farmers in low-income countries access the funding pledged during COP26.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK Government remains committed to doubling our International Climate Finance to £11.6 billion between 2021/22 and 2025/26. This includes programmes specifically designed to help smallholder farmers in the most climate vulnerable countries access funding to adopt sustainable and resilient agricultural practices. For example, the £65 million Just Rural Transition Support Programme, announced at COP26 will support developing countries to design and implement approaches that help their farmers build resilience and drive investment into more sustainable methods of agriculture through repurposing agricultural policies and support. This programme will also include support to ensure that farmers, including smallholders, are involved in policy-making processes, for example through consultations, trials and pilot programmes for new technologies and approaches. We are also supporting the Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness programme to work with producer organisations and agri-businesses in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to increase sourcing of agri-food products from smallholder farmers and to help farmers adopt climate-smart and productivity-enhancing agriculture technologies.
As well as supporting developing countries through UK Aid funded programmes we, together with the World Bank, convene a Policy Dialogue on Accelerating Transition to Sustainable Agriculture through redirecting public policies and support and scaling innovation. This has brought more than 30 countries together from across the globe to share evidence and experience and collectively raise ambition.