Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department plans to provide assistance to Pakistan on the lack of clean drinking water after recent flooding in that country.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The UK's humanitarian response to the flooding in Pakistan has prioritised clean water, sanitation and hygiene in response to the high risk of water-borne diseases. This aid is being targeted at the most vulnerable in the hardest hit areas of Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces. Alongside these efforts, we are continuing to monitor access to safe drinking water across the country and are working with the donor community and the Government of Pakistan to assess what further support is needed.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department plans to take to support the response to flooding in Pakistan.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The UK has pledged £26.5 million to support the response to the flooding in Pakistan. £5 million of the total £26.5 million amount will go to the DEC appeal as match funding. £11.5 million will support aid agencies to respond to people's immediate needs, including the provision of water, sanitation, shelter, and protecting women and girls. The further £10 million will focus on the health and nutrition implications of the crisis including tackling the rise in water-borne disease. The UK is also working with our international partners and multilateral organisations to advocate for Pakistan's economic recovery and reconstruction.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the policy paper entitled UK Government’s strategy for international development, published in May 2022, what funding has been allocated to programmes focused on delivering universal, comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
As set out in the International Development Strategy, the Foreign Secretary has said the UK Government intends to restore bilateral funding for women and girls, which includes programmes focused on universal, comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is working to complete its business and country planning process as soon as possible, which will allow us to finalise budget allocations, taking account of our Spending Review settlement. We cannot comment on funding allocations until this is finalised.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to support the Health Partnerships for Myanmar group.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In 2021/22 the FCDO provided £49.4 million in aid to Myanmar. 70 percent of this was to deliver healthcare and humanitarian support. Through our Tropical Health and Education Trust programme, we support the Royal Colleges and Cambridge Global Health Partnership to help address the acute health workforce crisis that followed the coup. This includes getting Myanmar doctors and nurses access to web-based learning materials, and helping establish an innovative service delivery mechanism (e.g. telemedicine) in this difficult security context. We are now making arrangements for this important work to continue in the immediate term.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department plans to take to help support the global roll out of the covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The UK champions vaccine access for all countries through our support for COVAX. The UK was one of the earliest and largest donors to COVAX, contributing £548 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC). Our early funding gave the COVAX AMC the purchase power to secure deals with manufacturers to supply internationally approved vaccines for up to 92 low and middle-income countries. So far, COVAX has helped deliver over 1.16 billion doses to 144 participants.
As of 3 March 2022, the UK has donated almost 36 million Covid-19 vaccine doses. 32.6 million doses have been delivered to countries in need, of which 26 million have been delivered via COVAX and 6.6 million doses donated directly. A further 3.3 million doses have been received by COVAX and will shortly be allocated and shipped in line with COVAX's fair allocation model. An additional 32.3 million doses have been committed to COVAX, to be delivered in the near future.
We have also announced £160 million to support the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation to continue its vital work to develop new, and improve existing, vaccines against COVID19 and other diseases with pandemic potential.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Government support for global covid-19 vaccine distribution.
Answered by Wendy Morton
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK has championed the importance of rapid, equitable access to safe and effective vaccines. We are among the largest donors to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), committing £548 million, which through match-funding leveraged $1 billion from other donors in 2020. This support to COVAX has been critical to it distributing COVID-19 vaccines to over 125 countries and economies, with the aim to provide up to 1.8 billion doses to low- and middle-income countries by early 2022. The UK has also committed to sharing 100 million vaccine doses by June 2022, with the majority going to COVAX.
The UK's investment in the research and development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been a key contribution to the global vaccination effort. So far, 450 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed worldwide at non-profit prices, with two-thirds going to lower- and middle- income countries.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, on what date his Department plans to publish country budgets.
Answered by Nigel Adams
FCDO will publish 2021/22 financial budgets in our Annual Report and Accounts, which are due to be published later this year.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what impact assessment his Department undertook prior to the decision to reduce UK aid funding for nutrition programmes.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The FCDO's aid budget has been allocated in accordance with UK strategic priorities against the challenging financial climate of the COVID-19 pandemic, after a cross-government review of how we spend ODA. The Foreign Secretary has agreed he will focus our investment and expertise where the UK can make the most difference and achieve maximum impact. Officials considered any impact on women and girls, the most marginalised and vulnerable, people with disabilities, and people from other protected groups, when developing advice for Ministers.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, on what date his Department plans to publish a confirmed budget for future UK aid for nutrition.
Answered by Wendy Morton
Information about our nutrition spend in the financial year 2021-22 will be publicly available through the Development Tracker in due course.
The portfolio, as agreed by the Foreign Secretary, will focus our investment and expertise on issues where the UK can make the most difference and achieve maximum strategic coherence, impact, and value for money.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the reduction in the Official Development Assistance budget on the UK's health research sector and its ability to develop as a science superpower; and for what reason funding for neglected tropical diseases has been reduced by 90 per cent.
Answered by James Duddridge
The Government has had to take the tough but necessary decision to temporarily reduce the UK's commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) on overseas development assistance (ODA). We recognise there will be visible reductions across our ODA portfolio compared to 0.7%, but we have worked hard to maintain UK support to the world's poorest people. FCDO ODA will be targeted to addressing seven global challenges facing the world poorest, focusing our investments and expertise on issues where the UK can make the most difference: climate change and biodiversity; Covid and global health security; girls' education; science, research and technology; open societies and conflict resolution; humanitarian preparedness and response; and trade and economic development.
FCDO will now work through what this means for individual research programmes, in line with the priorities we have identified. Scientific and technological innovation runs through all seven priority themes for our ODA spend.
We continue to value the work of researchers based in the UK and are proud that UK expertise in science, research and development has led to one of the first effective and affordable COVID-19 vaccines. The UK will remain a global leader on international development, with an ODA budget on track to exceed £10 billion this year.
In respect of interventions for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) the UK is proud of the significant contribution we have made to global efforts to protect hundreds of millions of people from NTDs. Our programmes have worked hard to deliver NTD treatment and care and to strengthen health systems to deliver these services going forward. We will work with countries affected by NTDs to help them strengthen their health systems so that they are able to prevent and treat NTDs in a more sustainable way.