Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department plans to make the living income a priority of its Economic Development Strategy.
Answered by James Duddridge
Supporting the conditions for the creation of quality jobs and raising the incomes of the world’s poorest workers is at the heart of DFID’s Economic Development Strategy. Since 2015, DFID has supported over 3.9 million people to have raised incomes and better jobs or livelihoods to work their way out of poverty and deliver safer, more secure and higher-return work for women. DFID is also one of the founding members of the Living Income Community of Practice, which aims to increase the incomes of smallholder farmers and enable them to achieve a decent standard of living.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what amount of funding his Department has invested in (a) renewable and (b) non-renewable energy projects in the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For the most recent five-year period of complete data (2014-2018), DFID bilateral spend on energy projects was £473m. Of this, £211m was on renewable energy and £12m on non-renewable. The remaining £250m spend was on energy policy, research, efficiency and distribution not directly associated with any fuel.
One of the UK’s development priorities is to help developing countries establish a secure and sustainable energy supply, in support of economic growth and poverty reduction, whilst simultaneously pursuing our climate and environmental objectives. DFID increasingly supports renewable energy projects to unlock affordable and clean energy and has not provided ODA bilateral assistance for coal-fired power generation since 2012.
Since 2011, the UK has provided 26 million people with improved access to clean energy and installed 1,600 MW in clean energy capacity.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether it is Government policy to spend 0.7 per cent of GDP target on overseas aid.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
It is the Government’s commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of our Gross National Income on overseas aid. It is enshrined in law and in the Conservative manifesto and was re-affirmed by the Secretary of State upon his appointment. The chancellor reiterated this commitment announcing the Spending Round. This commitment shows we are an enterprising, outward-looking and truly global Britain that is fully engaged with the world.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment he has made of the welfare of children living in Gaza.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The UK continually monitors the humanitarian situation in Gaza. We are concerned by the high levels of poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, and the impacts of the humanitarian situation on children. The World Health Organisation (WHO) in a report on 31 May titled ‘The Gaza trauma response’, noted that from 30th March 2018 to 30th March 2019, during the ‘Great March of Return’ demonstrations, 172 people became permanently disabled because of their injuries, of whom 36 were children.
The UK is committed to help the growing needs of approximately 1.5 million registered refugees in Gaza through support to the UN Refugees and Works Agency (UNRWA). Between 2019-2020, the UK will provide up to £80m to UNRWA. UNRWA runs over 274 schools and educates over 278,000 children in Gaza. We are providing £2 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to help support several of the most urgent health needs in Gaza, including drugs, surgical equipment and physical rehabilitation for people with disabilities. We have recently announced £1.6m aid to the World Health Organisation Appeal, which will support trauma medical treatment in the Gaza Strip, including establishment of a new limb reconstruction centre.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department has offered to the Sri Lankan Government as a result of the series of attacks on churches in that country.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Secretary of State has condemned the attacks and offered her condolences to those affected. DFID is not providing support to the Sri Lankan government - DFID’s bilateral programme in Sri Lanka closed in 2006 when the country graduated to middle income status. In 2016 (most recent figures), the UK’s attributed share of core multilateral funding to Sri Lanka was £30.417m, primarily through the World Bank. This includes £8.3 million of the FCO’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) programme focused on post-conflict community reconciliation and the Global Mine Action Programme which helps to build peace and support development in countries affected by landmines.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding her Department has allocated to tackling malaria in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID contributes to the global effort to tackle malaria through bilateral programmes in countries, research, multilateral funding to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the World Health Organisation (WHO), and through strengthening health systems in malaria affected countries.
The total estimated UK spend on malaria was £332 million in 2015/16, £499 million in 2016/17 and £481 million in 2017/18. DFID is currently the second largest global funder of the effort against malaria and will remain a leading global donor in the future. All direct bilateral malaria spend and relevant multilateral contributions are available in Statistics on International Development. All of our funding on malaria control, apart from that spent on research and development of products and the funding for commodity procurement, contributes to strengthening health systems.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding her Department has allocated to (a) bilateral assistance, (b) multilateral organisations, and (c) research and development to tackle malaria in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID contributes to the global effort to tackle malaria through bilateral programmes in countries, research, multilateral funding to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the World Health Organisation (WHO), and through strengthening health systems in malaria affected countries.
The total estimated UK spend on malaria was £332 million in 2015/16, £499 million in 2016/17 and £481 million in 2017/18. DFID is currently the second largest global funder of the effort against malaria and will remain a leading global donor in the future. All direct bilateral malaria spend and relevant multilateral contributions are available in Statistics on International Development. All of our funding on malaria control, apart from that spent on research and development of products and the funding for commodity procurement, contributes to strengthening health systems.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of the funding allocated by her Department to tackle malaria was allocated to health system strengthening programmes in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID contributes to the global effort to tackle malaria through bilateral programmes in countries, research, multilateral funding to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the World Health Organisation (WHO), and through strengthening health systems in malaria affected countries.
The total estimated UK spend on malaria was £332 million in 2015/16, £499 million in 2016/17 and £481 million in 2017/18. DFID is currently the second largest global funder of the effort against malaria and will remain a leading global donor in the future. All direct bilateral malaria spend and relevant multilateral contributions are available in Statistics on International Development. All of our funding on malaria control, apart from that spent on research and development of products and the funding for commodity procurement, contributes to strengthening health systems.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the scale of food shortages affecting Venezuela.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Foreign Secretary discussed the humanitarian crisis with Venezuela’s constitutional, interim President, Juan Guaidó, on 30 January. The UK Government is extremely concerned about the situation in Venezuela and continues to call for all actors to allow unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to meet the urgent needs of the Venezuelan people.
There is a lack of official data from the Maduro regime, but the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that approximately 4.1 million people are currently undernourished.
We remain in touch with partners in the region, including through British Embassies and DFID advisers deployed to the region. DFID continues to work closely with, and provide significant core funding to, the UN and Red Cross movement, while actively looking at how we may enhance our efforts to support the response to the Venezuela crisis.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with her Venezuelan counterpart on addressing the food shortages in that country.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Foreign Secretary discussed the humanitarian crisis with Venezuela’s constitutional, interim President, Juan Guaidó, on 30 January. The UK Government is extremely concerned about the situation in Venezuela and continues to call for all actors to allow unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to meet the urgent needs of the Venezuelan people.
There is a lack of official data from the Maduro regime, but the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that approximately 4.1 million people are currently undernourished.
We remain in touch with partners in the region, including through British Embassies and DFID advisers deployed to the region. DFID continues to work closely with, and provide significant core funding to, the UN and Red Cross movement, while actively looking at how we may enhance our efforts to support the response to the Venezuela crisis.