Oral Answers to Questions

Alan Mak Excerpts

Wednesday 12th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I do not want the hon. Member for Havant (Alan Mak) to feel excluded.

[Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)]

T8. The British Government are leading the response to the famine in east Africa. Will the Minister update the House on the Department’s work in this area?

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to speak about east Africa, where there is one of the four famines that the world faces this year. In east Africa specifically, we have led the way in humanitarian and emergency food assistance and helped more than 2.4 million people.

Oral Answers to Questions

Alan Mak Excerpts

Wednesday 29th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I regularly visit our joint headquarters office in East Kilbride, Glasgow. We work alongside the Scottish development programme, which very much focuses on Malawi. I am very happy to meet the new Minister.

[Mr Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)]

T6. Encouraging business growth in developing countries helps to cut poverty and to create new markets for British exports. Will the Secretary of State update the House on what the Government are doing to help entrepreneurs in developing countries?

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: we will end aid dependency through creating jobs. DFID has doubled its bilateral work on economic growth. That includes supporting entrepreneurship through expanding access to finance and easing the cost and risk of doing business.

Oral Answers to Questions

Alan Mak Excerpts

Wednesday 4th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

The crises in Syria and Yemen shine a spotlight on an issue that I feel has been missed out of humanitarian responses for too long—the fact that 37 million children around the world are out of school purely because they are in areas affected by either emergencies or conflict. The UK has led the way, with the “No Lost Generation” initiative, in working with countries to get children back into school. We would like to do the same in Yemen, but as the hon. Gentleman will know, the situation in that country makes it extremely difficult to get even the most basic humanitarian support flowing.

[Mr Alan Mak (Havant) (Con)]

DFID funds the International Citizen Service, which helps young people from Britain to help their counterparts in developing countries. Will the Secretary of State join me in encouraging more young people from Havant and across Britain to get involved?

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend has asked a really sensible question. More than 20,000 young people have now benefited from the International Citizen Service. It gives them a fantastic experience at a really important stage in their lives. In our manifesto we committed to tripling the numbers of young people able to benefit from it.