Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with UK supermarkets on the effect of Fairtrade certification on producers in developing countries; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID’s Economic Development Strategy sets out the importance of growth and jobs for sustainable poverty reduction. Fair and ethical trade standards have an important contribution to make to this especially in combatting modern slavery and child labour. Officials are engaging with a wide range of stakeholders including business, standards organisations and NGOs on these issues. DFID has been a long term partner of Fairtrade and is currently supporting innovative new work under the Fairtrace initiative. This is a technology-based supply chain mapping programme that will help increase transparency of supply chains.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding her Department provides as part of its education programmes for teaching on freedom of religion or belief, including in the Middle East; and how her Department coordinates that funding with funding through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the same purposes.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The Foreign & Commonwealth Office leads on the Government’s foreign human rights policy, including freedom of religion or belief. The Magna Carta Fund for Human Rights and Democracy funds a number of programmes that focus on the teaching of freedom of religion or belief, including in the Middle East. DFID does not track spending in this area but does aim to ensure its education programmes “do no harm”; that is, that they do not inadvertently promote intolerance, exacerbate grievances or contribute to feelings of frustration due to unmet expectations.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 28 November 2016 to Question 54484, what indicators her Department uses to measure the UK's distinct contribution to progress towards the UNAIDS outcome Decentralization and integration of HIV related services strengthened.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The UK government, as the fourth largest donor to UNAIDS, and as a member of the Programme Coordinating Board, closely monitors progress towards all of UNAIDS indicators including on the decentralisation and integration of HIV services. We rely on UNAIDS and country data to assess progress in specific countries.
The UK expects all its bilateral health systems strengthening programmes in high burden countries to integrate HIV. DFID does not track UK specific progress using a unified central indicator.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to identify the needs of displaced people living outside the camp structure in Iraq; and what humanitarian support her Department is providing to those such people.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Our partners, including the UN and non-governmental organisations, conduct regular needs assessments, inside and outside of camps. This helps us to reach the most vulnerable people in Iraq with UK-funded assistance.
Since June 2014, the UK has committed £169.5 million of humanitarian funding to Iraq. Our support to a range of partners enables UK aid to respond to the most pressing needs both inside and outside of camps, through the provision of clean water, food, medicines, protection services, and cash assistance. The UK is the largest donor to the UN Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund, which is flexible and responsive to the most urgent humanitarian needs.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate her Department has made of the number of displaced children who have been separated from their families at checkpoints in Iraq.
Answered by Rory Stewart
DFID does not have an accurate assessment of the number of displaced children who have been separated from their families at checkpoints in Iraq. UNICEF has worked with the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government to agree and establish child-friendly investigation mechanisms for children undergoing security screenings, ensuring the involvement of social workers.
We are vigorously lobbying the Government of Iraq to respect International Humanitarian Law during screening processes and to give full access to checkpoints to humanitarian agencies, in order to monitor the protection of vulnerable children and adults.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will conduct a formal review of humanitarian provision for displaced people in Iraq.
Answered by Rory Stewart
In 2015, the UN conducted a comprehensive internal review of the humanitarian response in Iraq. This examined all key aspects of the response, including planning and prioritisation, and made recommendations aimed at increasing the overall performance of UN and other humanitarian actors involved. DFID was consulted as part of the review.
In Iraq the UK is one of three donors that are members of the UN led Humanitarian Country Team, the formal oversight body that meets regularly to oversee the delivery of the humanitarian response in Iraq. This enables the UK to monitor humanitarian provision in Iraq on an ongoing basis.
All programmes funded by DFID are reviewed on an annual basis and on completion to assess progress and ensure projects deliver value for money for the UK taxpayer. The reports are published online. In addition, our partners regularly conduct their own monitoring and evaluation assessments, and report the results to us.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she plans to take in response to the reforms agreed at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 to make operational improvements to the UK's support for displaced people in Iraq.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The UK is acting on the reforms agreed at the World Humanitarian Summit and supports the Grand Bargain principles in Iraq. In Iraq, we are taking forward the reforms agreed at the Summit by:
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government is taking to support the development of a stable government in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and whether that work includes assisting the work of the Catholic Church's Conference of Episcopal Bishops in Congo towards that aim.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
In 2016 there have been three UK ministerial visits, each emphasising to the most senior levels of Congolese government that the current political crisis poses serious risks of instability to the country and region. The UK is a major contributor to the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC, which deploys 19,000 personnel. Our aid programme provides support to the ongoing electoral process as well as other efforts to strengthen government accountability. We provide £1.5 million in support to the Catholic Church’s Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace (CEJP), which deploys hundreds of long-term electoral observers and tens of thousands of observers in the lead up to election day. The UK has been supportive of the efforts of CENCO (the Catholic Bishops’ national commission) to make political dialogue in DRC more inclusive.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department plans to provide financial or technical assistance to the Democratic Republic of Congo to ensure that elections in line with the 2006 constitution take place.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
DFID has supported the current election process in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2015, focussing on increasing democratic representation of women and youth, protecting human rights defenders and broadening the Catholic Church’s electoral observation activities. In early 2016, DFID announced that additional funding of £6.6million could be made available to support the Electoral Commission in updating the electoral register. These funds are available if and only if the Congolese authorities show political will to hold free and fair elections.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what targets and measures of success her Department has set for the integration of HIV within broader development programmes.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The UK supports the internationally agreed targets and measures of success set out in the UNAIDS 2016-2021 strategy, which support the Global Goal of ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030. The Strategy includes indicators measuring the integration of HIV services into health systems.