Written Question
Tuesday 25th October 2022
Asked by:
Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question
to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how his Department's funding for (a) Somaliland and (b) Somalia will be spent in the 2022-23 financial year; and how much and what proportion of the funding will be spend on programmes to help tackle child wasting.
Answered by Leo Docherty
The UK is a major humanitarian donor to the East Africa region and UK-funded activities are making a difference and saving lives. Since 1 April 2022 the UK has allocated £52.8 million in humanitarian, health and nutrition support to alleviate the impact of drought and address the risk of famine in Somalia and Somaliland.
An estimated 1.8 million children under the age of 5 are affected by acute malnutrition in Somalia. UK support is providing emergency cash transfers, life-saving health and nutrition services and supplies, and supporting immediate access to food for people in rural communities. In early 2022 FCDO Ministers approved 'Better Lives'; a new multi-year health and nutrition programme in Somalia targeted at mothers and children.
Given the current fiscal context, the FCDO is not able to publish forward programme allocations in our Annual Report. The original allocations would not be accurate, and it would be misleading to publish detailed disaggregated budgets at this time.
Written Question
Tuesday 25th October 2022
Asked by:
Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question
to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to his Department's commitment at the Nutrition for Growth Summit in December 2021, what progress he has made on (a) spending £1.5 billion by 2030 on tackling global malnutrition and (b) maintaining 20 per cent of overall nutrition spending specifically on nutrition programmes.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Information about spending to tackle global malnutrition in 2021 and 2022 will be made available through Statistics for International Development (SIDS) in Autumn 2022 and Autumn 2023 (respectively). We will continue to publish our spend information by project on DevTracker as always (updated monthly). The FCDO has disbursed over £5 billion of Official Development Assistance for nutrition between 2013 and 2020 and spent £530.2 million on nutrition specific programmes, just missing our 2020 target of £574.8 million. We are now focused on achieving our 2021 Nutrition for Growth commitment to spend £1.5 billion by 2030.
Written Question
Monday 24th October 2022
Asked by:
Gavin Williamson (Conservative - Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge)
Question
to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when his Department plans to publish an action plan for supporting child health and survival, including its funding strategy for routine vaccination programmes for children.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK published our approach paper on Ending the Preventable Deaths of Mothers, Babies and children and Health Systems Strengthening Position Paper in December 2021. Together these lay out the UK's approach to improving maternal and child health through the four pillars of strengthening health systems, improving inequality, tackling the wider determinants of health, and research and innovation.
The UK's commitment to improving the reach and equity of routine childhood vaccination cuts across these pillars and is reaffirmed in these papers. The UK's contribution to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is supporting them to vaccinate 300 million children, saving 7-8 million lives through 2021-25.
Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 21 Jun 2022
Oral Answers to Questions
"T7. Across the horn of Africa, we are seeing one of the worst droughts in 40 years. Coupled with the tragedy of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that is pushing millions of people into starvation. What more can we do to help on the ground and save lives? [R]..."Gavin Williamson - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 18 Jan 2022
UK Government Recognition of Somaliland
"I am very grateful for the privilege of being able to bring this Adjournment debate to the House today.
In 1960, Somaliland emerged independent from the British empire after many years as the British Somaliland protectorate. For five days it was independent, before it took the step to merge with …..."Gavin Williamson - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 18 Jan 2022
UK Government Recognition of Somaliland
"The hon. Lady raises a very important point. The key reason for this debate is to discuss the fact that Somaliland has developed so much. In those years of conflict—where so many Somalilanders had their lives under threat, and so many hundreds of thousands were displaced, both internally within Somaliland …..."Gavin Williamson - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 18 Jan 2022
UK Government Recognition of Somaliland
"I pay tribute to the hon. Member’s predecessor and the many people who live in his constituency. In his constituency is a very established Somaliland community that has been there probably far longer than he or I have been on this earth. This country has deep links with Somaliland that …..."Gavin Williamson - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 18 Jan 2022
UK Government Recognition of Somaliland
"My hon. Friend the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee is absolutely right. By taking the brave step to recognise Somaliland, we would not just be opening up opportunities for Somaliland itself, but opportunities for British investors and British business to go there and work, very much creating the gateway …..."Gavin Williamson - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 18 Jan 2022
UK Government Recognition of Somaliland
"On both areas that my right hon. Friend raises, he is absolutely right. One flies into Hargeisa airport, and it is a safe place to visit. One can get a bus to the centre of Hargeisa, as he did. When I visited, I must confess I did not get a …..."Gavin Williamson - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 18 Jan 2022
UK Government Recognition of Somaliland
"My right hon. Friend is so correct. If we look to Djibouti, to the north of Somaliland, we see the Chinese investment that is going in. Where there is a vacuum, others do step in. If this country showed the leadership that it can by recognising Somaliland, that would show …..."Gavin Williamson - View Speech
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