Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps he is taking to ensure protection and relief to Palestinian refugees affected by the conflict in Syria; and whether her Department has any plans to increase the UK's contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
Answered by Alistair Burt
We continue to call on all parties to protect civilians in Syria, including Palestinian refugees, and to allow humanitarian agencies unfettered access to provide aid to those most in need, including at the UN Security Council and the International Syria Support Group. The Secretary of State for International Development and I focused on these messages at the 'Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region Conference' held in Brussels on 24 and 25 April.
DFID supports UNRWA’s Syria Emergency Appeal which provides 418,000 Palestinian Refugees in Syria (PRS) with cash and in-kind food assistance. This includes providing 254,000 internally displaced PRS with blankets, mattresses and hygiene kits in addition to livelihood, education and protection assistance.
UK officials and the Minister for the Middle East work closely with UNRWA, PRS host governments, and partners to maintain the continuity of essential services to Palestinian refugees. The UK will deliver its next round of financial support for UNRWA’s core budget earlier than originally planned, to help meet the growing needs of Palestinian refugees across the region. Officials continue to monitor UNRWA’s evolving financial situation closely.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking directly through local organisations based in Syria to support civilians evacuating from Eastern Ghouta to Idlib; and what funding her Department (a) has made and (b) plans to make available to those organisations.
Answered by Alistair Burt
To date we have committed £897 million to support people in Syria, including in Eastern Ghouta. DFID’s funding in Syria is allocated flexibly in order to allow our humanitarian partners to respond to emerging spikes in need.
We do not allocate funding directly to Syrian NGOs, but many of our partners work with such groups on the ground.
DFID-funded partners are supporting people displaced from Eastern Ghouta in both Rural Damascus and Idlib. This includes the provision of food, shelter and basic hygiene products.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to deliver her commitment to leave no-one behind within the global HIV response.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID’s HIV response prioritises those still left behind by the huge progress made in recent years, including adolescents, women and girls and under-served groups such as men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, sex workers and prisoners.
For example, through the Robert Carr Civil Society Networks Fund we are supporting civil society networks of people affected by HIV to demand their rights, address stigma and discrimination and hold governments to account. The UK is proud to be a founding member of this Fund and has committed £9 million, since its start, to help champion their rights to access prevention and treatment services.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 its integration of HIV and AIDS prevention programmes into (a) the wider health system and (b) her Department's programmes; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I provided on 28 November to Question number 54484.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has to undertake a stocktake review of her Department's work on HIV to assess its comparative performance with other countries (a) in general and (b) on Sustainable Development Goal 3.3.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I provided on 7 November to Question numbers 51481 and 51482.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will increase spending on overseas aid to compensate for the loss of value of that aid resulting from the fall in the value of the pound since 23 June 2016.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The government is committed to spending 0.7% of our national income on aid.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent representations the Government has made to the Ethiopian government on the Integrated Development Master Plan; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Government of Ethiopia withdrew the Addis Ababa Master Plan in January 2016 in response to the wave of protests it had triggered in Oromia. The UK government has raised concerns about the unrest in Oromia, and particularly the reports of a large number of deaths, with the Ethiopian Government on a number of occasions. The Secretary of State raised our concerns directly with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister at Davos in January 2016.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make it her policy to support the work of the UN High Level Panel on Access to Medicines; with reference to the Prime Minister's comments on the pharmaceutical industry to the BBC on 2 July 2014, what recent assessment she has made of the steps to take to resolve market failure related to the development of new classes of antibiotics in that industry; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The UK is committed to ensuring access to low cost, effective medicines in the developing world, providing a range of significant inputs to increasing access to essential medicines.
We support the provision of essential medicines and other health products through innovative global partnerships such as the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), UNITAID, GAVI and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). We work to strengthen systems weaknesses, such as weak supply chains or poor procurement, which deter private investment, keep medicines prices high or lead to misuse or waste of medicines. We also place a great emphasis on research and development of new vaccines, medicines and diagnostics for conditions that affect millions of poor people. A new £1 billion fund – the Ross Fund - was recently announced with the aim of developing, testing and delivering a range of new products to help combat the world’s most serious diseases, such as malaria, Ebola and TB in developing countries.
Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance is a key priority for this Government. We are awaiting the final report of the O’Neill Independent Review on Antimicrobial Resistance later this month and the Department of Health will then lead a cross-Government response.
We support the aims of the UN High Level Panel on Access to Medicines. For it to fulfil its potential to improve access to affordable and quality medicines, including antibiotics, it will need to take a balanced approach, building on the WHO Global Strategy and Plan of Action and engaging with existing global partnerships, and use its influence to galvanise Member States, public and private sectors around a common approach to this important issue.