Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what representations the Government has made to the Israeli government on the confiscation near Qalqillhya on 7 May 2015 of 3,000 metres of water pipes funded by her Department as part of a project with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Palestinian Ministry of Ariculture.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The confiscated pipes have all been returned.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the UK contribution has been to the UN's emergency relief fund for Yemen since its creation.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The UK has contributed £36.2 million to the Yemen Emergency Response Fund (ERF) since it was established in 2010.
In 2015 the ERF channelled funds to over 79 projects implemented by UN agencies and national and international NGOs. Through the total resources received from donors in 2015, the Fund has provided critical life-saving assistance to 3.3 million people affected by the conflict in Yemen, including through the provision of healthcare, clean water, sanitation services, food supplies or shelter materials.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make an assessment of the effect on poverty reduction in West Papua, Indonesia, of the reported ban on non-governmental organisations working in that area.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID no longer has a bilateral poverty reduction programme in Indonesia. However, as part of UK Government action to mitigate against climate change, we work in partnership with the Indonesian national and provincial governments to help secure community access to forest land in Papua to promote a sustainable green economy, whilst supporting local livelihoods.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assistance her Department plans to provide to help tackle hunger in Malawi.
Answered by Nick Hurd
DFID has a significant programme of ongoing support in health, education, agriculture, water and sanitation and economic development, particularly in rural areas and with the private sector, for growth, jobs, incomes and food insecurity in Malawi. We support increasing access to justice for women and vulnerable groups, accountability and governance reforms.
The UK was one of the first development partners to respond to Malawi’s international appeal for emergency aid in October 2015. The UK has now committed £14.5m through partners including the World Food Programme, UNICEF and an International Non-Governmental Organisation (INGO) consortium led by Save the Children. This support includes:
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the availability of food to people in Malawi.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Each year the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) assesses food availability in Malawi and publishes the official figure for those who are likely to be food insecure over the year. This year, at over 2.8m people, the figure is the highest for a decade. The UK was one of the first development partners to respond to Malawi’s international appeal for emergency aid in October 2015. The UK has now committed £14.5m, which includes provision of food for over 800,000 people, mass screening of up to 800,000 children to identify urgent nutritional support needs and specialist nutrition supplies for over 140,000 children and others suffering from acute malnutrition.
DFID continues to monitor the situation, through formal assessments, community consultation and ongoing engagement with partners. Maize prices are high and increasing and food availability on markets is unpredictable. The Government of Malawi has released maize from its reserves and has bought additional supplies from Zambia, although there are ongoing concerns about effectiveness of its distribution. DFID continues to work with partners to help Malawi break the cycle of recurrent food insecurity crises year after year.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to improve the reliability and collection of data on nutrition in countries in Asia and Africa.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID has been taking a range of steps to improve the reliability and collection of data on nutrition. These include organising an informal expert consultation on nutrition data gaps in June this year; working with the European Commission to establish National Information Platforms for Nutrition; developing innovative metrics and methods for agriculture for nutrition; continuing to fund the Global Nutrition Report, which gives particular focus to data quality and availability and continues to undertake analysis to identify priority areas for investment; funding the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) programme; and continuing to work with other donors to coordinate our funding on nutrition.
In addition, the UK and US jointly announced that they will partner with the GODAN Secretariat to organise a 2016 GODAN Summit. We will also commission research in early 2016 to test innovative and feasible approaches to collect data, with sufficient frequency in more fragile settings, which should enable better management of malnutrition when shocks and disasters arise.
The UK will continue to provide strong leadership to maintain global momentum on nutrition and will continue to work hard to deliver its promises to scale up its work on nutrition between now and 2020.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of UK aid funding for health and nutrition programmes in the Central African Republic.
Answered by Grant Shapps - Secretary of State for Defence
The UK is currently the second largest bilateral humanitarian donor to the Central African Republic. Since 2013, DFID has contributed £34 million to programmes supporting healthcare and nutrition for Central Africans and Central African refugees. In 2015, we hope to reach more than 300,000 people with health and nutritional assistance in CAR.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the likelihood and scale of food shortages in Yemen as a result of conflict in that country.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Food security for the people of Yemen is a growing concern. According to the UN, of the 12.9 million Yemenis classified as food insecure, 6 million are facing severe food shortages. In Hodeidah city alone, UNICEF has warned that 96,000 severely malnourished children are at risk of dying. The ongoing conflict has affected imports of essential fuel, food and medical supplies into Yemen. In addition, ongoing fighting is preventing the distribution of food to those who most need it.
The UK is one of the largest donors to the crisis in Yemen and has announced £55 million to help at least half a million Yemenis caught in this conflict. This is providing vital medical supplies, water, food and emergency shelter.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the prospects for re-establishing free and fair access for humanitarian aid to Yemen through Port Hodiedah.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
I refer the Right Hon. member to the answer given by my Right Hon. Friend Minister of State Tobias Ellwood on 16 September 2015 to Question 9701.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the timetable is for the completion of programme reviews of UK aid funding for the Central African Republic.
Answered by Grant Shapps - Secretary of State for Defence
DFID has recently completed two project reviews for humanitarian work in the Central African Republic and with Central African Republic refugees. These reviews will shortly be available on our website ‘Development Tracker’.