Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her Department's policies on funding the UN Relief and Works Agency of the use of funding from that agency by a Palestinian NGO to organise a tree-planting ceremony honouring people including Palestinian terrorists.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
We have raised this allegation with the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) who have confirmed that UNRWA has no present relationship with the NGO in question, Union of Agriculture Workers Committees (UAWC). In monitoring DFID support for UNRWA, we pay stringent attention to their neutrality policy and values of peace. We maintain a close dialogue with UNRWA on neutrality issues, and we take allegations of incitement very seriously indeed, raising them whenever appropriate.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how her Department measures the effectiveness of spending in the Palestinian territories by UN agencies to which her Department contributes funds.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
In the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) the UK provides funding to a number of UN agencies including the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), UN Women, the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO). We monitor programmes throughout the year and annually assess their delivery against targets. DFID also monitors its results framework for the OPTs quarterly to ensure results being delivered are in line with those planned.