Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps he has taken to ensure that his Department's funding for Sittwe General Hospital, Rakhine State, Burma, is not being used to discriminate against Rohingya people.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK supports improved health care for all communities in Rakhine through the multi-donor Access to Health Fund. We are clear that funding for Sittwe Hospital, provided as one part of this programme, must deliver improved access to healthcare for Rohingya people. We will not fund activities that further disadvantage this group.
Baroness Sugg raised the need for equal access to health treatment for all, when she met with the Rakhine State Health Director and the Union Minister of Health and Sport during her visit to Myanmar last autumn. This is in accordance with the Rakhine Advisory Commission recommendations. The UK will continue to raise this issue in discussions.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the Answer of 3 July 2019 to Question 272862 on Developing Countries: Third Sector, what proportion of the £1.3 billion allocated by his Department to fund the work of civil society was spent on civil society organisations registered in developing countries.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
A full answer to this question could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. DFID is committed to working with Civil Society Organisations based in developing countries. Funding is available through our country offices, and both streams of the latest funding round of UK Aid Direct were open to applications from the global south.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the Answer of 11 July 2019 to Question 272858 on Developing Countries: Human Rights, what plans he has to raise awareness of the Government document entitled, UK support for human rights defenders, to (a) his Department's staff and (b) human rights defenders.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
FCO and DFID have conducted a number of awareness raising activities for the ‘UK Support for Human Rights Defenders’ document both before and after its publication.
During its development a selected number of overseas diplomatic posts, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and human rights defenders were consulted. Following its publication and announcement at the Global Conference for Media Freedom in July, the document has been made available on GOV.UK in all six UN languages. The document has been sent to all posts in the UK diplomatic network encouraging them to use it in the course of their work with human rights defenders as well as to relevant policy staff in DFID headquarters.
The document has also been circulated on external websites such as Human Rights Watch, Global Witness, and the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. The FCO and DFID will continue their outreach with human rights networks, NGOs and human rights defenders. Lord Ahmad has also written to Michelle Bachelet (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) to inform her of the document.
The FCO and DFID will continue to look for opportunities to further promote and publicise the document including Human Rights Defenders Day on 9 December and Human Rights Day on 10 December.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to increase Official Development Assistance spending on education.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Prime Minister has publicly stated that education, particularly girls’ education, is a priority for the UK. He announced £90 million for education in emergencies and protracted crisis including £85 million to Education Cannot Wait at the G7 Summit and this week the UK announced a £515 million package of support for education, including a £300 million pledge for the new International Finance Facility for Education. Alongside our commitment to the Global Partnership for Education, the UK is now the leading bilateral donor to all three major multilateral education funds and continues to be one of the leading bilateral donors to basic education. At the UN General Assembly this week, the UK has been calling for others to step up and follow our lead.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to help strengthen the tax systems of developing countries.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK is committed to supporting countries to achieve the Global Goals, including working actively with countries to help raise and manage public revenues, and thereby to invest in their public services and infrastructure.
In February 2019 we announced a new £47 million package of support to assist developing countries in strengthening their tax systems. This package will provide technical assistance and capacity building support through a number of partners. It will also help contribute to economic growth by helping to tackle tax avoidance and evasion, and by creating a more level playing field for businesses. In addition to this new package of support, the UK has a number of other initiatives underway to help strengthen tax systems; in August 2018 DFID Ethiopia launched a £35 million programme to support the Ethiopian government in transforming the country’s tax system, and HMRC’s Capacity Building Unit provides peer-to-peer expertise to raise the standards of tax systems of developing countries.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2019 to Question 278525 on Ilois: Resettlement, how much of the £20 million allocated to his Department for programmes to develop a support package for Chagossians living in Mauritius has been spent; and how much of that spending has been classified as Official Development Assistance.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since the Written Ministerial Statement in November 2016, neither the main Chagossian leadership nor the Government of Mauritius have engaged actively with the UK Government in the development of a support package for Chagossians in Mauritius. However, as a first step DFID has contracted the British Council in Mauritius to deliver English Language Training (ELT) to the Chagossian community. The British Council ran a series of radio adverts at a cost of £5,444 to gauge interest among the Chagossian community. This is the only spending to date against DFID’s commitment of £20m and is classified as Official Development Assistance. Following this successful campaign, ELT courses started in late August.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans he has to investigate alternative sources of climate finance from (a) public and (b) private sources.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Delivering the global transition to a low carbon economy will require unprecedented levels of investment from the public and private sectors. The Government is fulfilling our pledge to deliver £5.8 billion between 2015/2016 and 20/21. In addition to investing our own resources, the Government continues to press multilateral organisations to help countries tackle climate change through providing finance. The Multilateral Development Banks have an important role to play, and in the last year the World Bank has set new targets for the proportion of its finance which contributes to low carbon, resilient development. In 2018, 70% of World Bank projects include some climate benefits, up from 37% just two years ago.
Private finance is crucial, and the Government uses some of its climate finance to unlock investments from the private sector. To date, we estimate that the UK has leveraged £910 million of private investment. CDC and the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) have a key role in crowding in other investors and demonstrating that investment in low carbon, resilient development is possible. CDC has invested over $500 million in renewable power over the last 2 years, and PIDG $300 million.
The recently published UK Green Finance Strategy outlines how we will position the UK at the forefront of this global shift, catalysing the investment needed to transition to a net zero economy.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding his Department allocated to (a) educational, (b) healthcare and (c) infrastructure projects in the 2018-19 financial year.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
(a) DFID spent £564m bi-laterally on the broad Education sector in 2018/19. The sectors that have been included are: Education (level unspecified), Basic education, secondary education and post-secondary education.
(b) DFID spent £691m bi-laterally on the broad Health sector in 2018/19. The sectors that have been included are: Health general, basic health and non-communicable diseases.
(c) (i) DFID spent £1,048m bi-laterally on the broad Economic Infrastructure and services sector in 2018/19. The sectors that have been included are as follows: Transport & storage, communications, energy generation and policy, banking and businesses.
(ii) DFID spent £209m bi-laterally on the broad Social Infrastructure sector in 2018/19. The sectors that have been included are: Social protection, employment creation, Housing Policy, Culture and other social services.
We have used definitions that are in line with DFID’s National Statistics – Statistics on International Development.
In addition, we make contributions to multilateral organisations like the Global Partnership for Education and the Global Fund.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much of the £40 million fund for Chagossians has been allocated to date by his Department; for what purposes that money has been allocated; and how much of that spending has been classified as Official Development Assistance.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
DFID was allocated £20 million to develop a support package for Chagossians living in Mauritius, which is eligible to receive Official Development Assistance (ODA).
The support package will be used to address the most pressing needs of Chagossians in terms of access to adequate healthcare and to improved education, including language training, and employment opportunities.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans he has to ensure that human rights are prioritized within his Department's approach to achieving the (a) SDGs and (b) other development outcomes.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The UK is committed to respecting, promoting and protecting universal human rights. Respect for human rights is important in itself and for achieving stable, inclusive and prosperous societies. Human rights underpin freedom, democracy and rule of law and form the basis of the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are at the heart of the UK Aid Strategy and the Department’s new Single Departmental Plan which guide DFID’s strategic decision-making.
The UK continues to be a strong advocate for Goal 16 on inclusive, peaceful societies, widely acknowledged as an enabler for all the other Sustainable Development Goals and for the protection and promotion of human rights.
DFID programmes support human rights across a range of areas such as health, education, peace and security as well as through our support for inclusive and accountable governance. DFID puts the rights of women and girls at the centre of our development efforts through the 2018 Strategic Vision for Gender Equality. We support southern grassroots organisations to protect girls from issues like female genital mutilation and enforced child marriage and DFID’s support to the Jo Cox Memorial Grants includes a specific tranche to build civil society’s capacity to predict identity-based violence.