Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the use of satellite technology in delivering remote learning to children that are not attending school as a result of (a) the covid-19 pandemic and (b) other reasons.
Answered by Wendy Morton
DFID is helping to deliver remote learning to children during the COVID19 crisis through radio, television and many mobile telephone networks that are providing educational applications free of charge.
Satellite internet technology has specific potential benefits in reaching children in remote areas where mobile telephone coverage is limited. The DFID-funded EdTech Hub is researching how to effectively scale this type of learning in low income countries, with a key focus on the Value for Money compared to non-tech interventions.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of using onebillion.org software to teach reading, writing and numeracy to children in developing countries; and whether her Department has allocated funding to provision of teaching using that software in those countries.
Answered by Wendy Morton
We are aware of the learning benefits of using onebillion, as shown by research and as the UK winner of the Global Learning X-Prize. Onebillion’s approach has demonstrated learning benefits for both girls and boys in areas of the world where access to education is limited. DFID has previously funded onebillion through Comic Relief and through an in-kind donation in Malawi.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether she has plans to visit Sudan.
Answered by James Duddridge
There are currently no plans for a Secretary of State for International Development visit to Sudan. However, as Minister for Africa, I am considering plans to travel to the continent, including to Sudan, in the near future.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the findings of Project Drawdown in 2017 on reversing global warming, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of educating girls and providing access to family planning to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels by over 100 gigatonnes by 2050.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
We are familiar with the Project Drawdown report and recognise the strong links between our work on girls’ education, gender, and tackling climate change, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Coping with climate change is a challenge that faces us all and it is having wide ranging effects on economies, livelihoods, access to education and natural resources. The poorest communities, and girls and women within them, are likely to be hardest hit, which is why we are investing in building the resilience of the world’s poorest by doubling our International Climate Finance. This has helped 57 million people cope with the effects of climate change since 2011.
The UK is firmly committed to working to ensure that all girls have access to twelve years of quality education. This access is significantly impacted by climate change. Girls are often the first to be taken out of school when climate affects livelihoods and household food security. Girls and women can also be powerful agents of change, at political, community and household level. For example, women in developing countries currently play critical roles in supplying and managing household energy which means they can make a significant contribution to the uptake of solid fuel alternatives and sustainable energy solutions. Indeed, educating women and girls has been described as one of the ‘best climate change disaster prevention investments’ both because educated women are better able to adapt their homes and livelihoods to climate extremes and because the evidence suggests that when a girl has an education, she marries later, has better employment and fewer children, who are healthier and better educated.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate he has made of the numbers of sanitary pads donated through UK aid programmes; and to what countries those donations were made.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
In 2019, the UK announced new work to tackle period poverty and shame overseas and allocated £2m of funding for projects through UK Aid Direct in DFID priority countries.
DFID takes an integrated approach to tackling period poverty and shame, from reproductive health and sanitation programmes, to girls’ education and humanitarian programmes. Our programmes in Africa and Asia support access to products and safe and hygienic facilities. They also equip girls and women with knowledge about their bodies, seeking to address harmful stigma and shame.
We do not disaggregate the numbers of sanitary pads donated through UK aid programmes. We believe women and girls should be able to access a choice of period products that meet their needs, including sanitary pads. In some countries, UK aid is supporting women to make reusable products locally. This helps them generate an income and creates eco-friendly options that meet local women’s preferences.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what programmes his Department funds in South Sudan.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
DFID’s largest programme in South Sudan is our Humanitarian Assistance and Resilience programme, which provides life-saving assistance and helps people cope with conflict and climate shocks. Our Building Resilience through Asset Creation and Enhancement programme provides complementary support to help reduce hunger and mitigate conflict in rural areas.
DFID also makes a major contribution to the delivery of essential services in South Sudan, through our Girls Education South Sudan programme, which has a particular focus on supporting girls to complete their schooling; and through the DFID-led multi-donor Health Pooled Fund, through which we are supporting over 800 frontline health centres across South Sudan.
Finally, DFID is providing modest support to improve conflict sensitivity of donor aid to South Sudan and to pilot sub-national peace-building approaches through our Better Aid in Conflict and our Peace-building Opportunities Fund programming.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much UK aid has been allocated to the International Financing Facility for Education; and what assessment his Department has made of effect of the work of that Facility on delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goal on global 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 a commitment of up to £300 million for the International Finance Facility for Education at the UN General Assembly in September 2019, consisting of £100 million in grant funding and $250 million in paid-in cash and guarantees.
The Facility will make a generate additional finance for education in up to 40 lower-middle income countries where funding is inadequate, learning is off track, and around 155 million children are out of school.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2020 to Question 3741 on Developing Countries: Education, how much of the £7.08 billion was spent bilaterally in each year from 2009 to 2018; and what the top 10 countries were in which that funding was spent.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Distribution of the £7.08 billion spent bilaterally on education between 2009 and 2018 is listed below:
2009 | £523m |
2010 | £482m |
2011 | £649m |
2012 | £620m |
2013 | £905m |
2014 | £820m |
2015 | £651m |
2016 | £961m |
2017 | £785m |
2018 | £686m |
These amounts include contributions which cannot be disaggregated by country, some of which is channelled through multilateral programmes such as the Global Partnership for Education and Education Cannot Wait.
Top ten country spend over this time period is as below:
1 | Pakistan |
2 | India |
3 | Bangladesh |
4 | Malawi |
5 | China |
6 | Nigeria |
7 | Ghana |
8 | Ethiopia |
9 | West Bank & Gaza Strip |
10 | South Africa |
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the Girls' Education Challenge has achieved to date; and what the projected outcomes are of its programmes.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK launched our flagship Girls’ Education Challenge programme – the world’s largest global fund dedicated to girls’ education – in May 2012.
The first phase of the Girls’ Education Challenge (2012-2017) directly provided quality education for over a million marginalised girls through 37 different projects in 18 countries across Africa and Asia, many operating in conflict and crisis. The programme also benefitted other girls, boys, and wider communities through activities such as teaching training and improving school infrastructure.
The second phase of the Girls’ Education Challenge (2017-2025) is supporting up to 1.5 million marginalised girls with access to education through 41 projects across 17 countries. This second phase includes support for highly marginalised girls who have never attended school, or have dropped out due to poverty, motherhood, disability or conflict.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how Official Development Assistance has been allocated to Education Cannot Wait in each financial year since it was established; and what future allocations of funding he plans to make.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK is the largest donor to Education Cannot Wait. Education Cannot Wait has supported over 2 million children since its inception.
The funding provided directly to Education Cannot Wait in each financial year has been:
- 2016/17 - £7.5m
- 2017/18 - £10m
- 2018/19 - £12.1m
- 2019/20 - £38.5m
Total - £68.1m
Planned future spend provided directly is anticipated as:
- 2020/21 - £25.6m
- 2021/22 - £14.9m
- 2022/23 - £10m
Total - £50.5m
Exact disbursements are based on performance in annual reviews, together with reviews of financial documentation to ensure payments are not in advance of need. Allocations beyond 2022/2023 will be determined closer to the time, based on progress made.
Exact disbursements are based on performance in annual reviews, together with reviews of financial documentation to ensure payments are not in advance of need. Allocations beyond 2022/2023 will be determined closer to the time, based on progress made.