Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what his Department's remaining budgeting is for supporting Marshall scholarships in the current spending review period.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In this spending review period, FCDO funding to the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission (MACC) to manage the Marshall Scholarship, is £2.7 million per annum. In 24/25 the Prime Minister announced as part of the Atlantic Declaration in June 2023 an uplift to the MACC of £1.4 million, meaning £4.1 million will be provided to the MACC in the next financial year.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help prevent evasion of Russian oil price cap sanctions.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The oil sanctions imposed by the UK and its partners, including the oil price cap, are working. Russia's oil revenues fell 25 per-cent year-on-year between January and September 2023, while the cap has also been effectively protecting global oil market security. The UK and our Coalition partners are aware of circumvention risks and employ strategies to minimise them. The UK has placed new sanctions on entities used by Russia to attempt to lessen the impact of our oil sanctions. We also continue to lead active discussions with our partners on the most effective means of continuing to tackle circumvention and increasing Russia's costs in doing so.
The UK has implemented a strong enforcement approach focused on prohibition, with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), HMRC, and the National Crime Agency jointly considering cases which may be appropriate for criminal prosecution. On 12 October, the UK published a joint maritime advisory statement directed at government and private sector actors involved in the trade of Russian crude and refined products. The statement provided recommendations concerning sanctions-compliant practices that reduce exposure to possible circumvention risks.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will take steps to set out a (a) strategy and (b) timetable to work with (i) Sudan and (ii) the wider international community to help Sudan transition to democracy.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Working with international partners, including the Troika (UK, US and Norway), we are supporting Sudanese efforts to resolve the current political crisis through the establishment of a civilian-led government. We continue to urge Sudanese actors to swiftly reach an agreement on this. This message was delivered by the UK Special Representative for Sudan and South Sudan, and the UK Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea during a visit to Khartoum in September, as well as by the British Ambassador to Sudan. However, the UK's strategy and possible timeframes on working with Sudan and the international community must be guided by the wishes of the Sudanese people, it is essential that Sudan's journey to a democratic transition is Sudanese-led.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support the Government is providing to help the reforestation of Madagascar.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
In the financial year 2021/22 the FCDO spent £13 million of UK ODA bilaterally through centrally managed programmes, principally on humanitarian response (£6 million), family planning (£3.5 million) and disaster risk insurance (£2.1 million). Our key multi-lateral partners in Madagascar are the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the African Development Bank and the UN System, including the global health, education and climate funds.
In December 2022, DEFRA will launch its Bio-Diverse Landscapes Fund programme in Madagascar. This will spend £10 million over 6 years to protect and restore Madagascar's dry and humid terrestrial forests and will complement existing DEFRA-funded work to protect mangrove forests in the marine environment. There are also several biodiversity and conservation projects in Madagascar through the Darwin Initiative.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what UK Overseas Development Assistance is being spent in Madagascar in (a) bilateral and (b) multilateral programmes and if he will list the programmes and projects.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
In the financial year 2021/22 the FCDO spent £13 million of UK ODA bilaterally through centrally managed programmes, principally on humanitarian response (£6 million), family planning (£3.5 million) and disaster risk insurance (£2.1 million). Our key multi-lateral partners in Madagascar are the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the African Development Bank and the UN System, including the global health, education and climate funds.
In December 2022, DEFRA will launch its Bio-Diverse Landscapes Fund programme in Madagascar. This will spend £10 million over 6 years to protect and restore Madagascar's dry and humid terrestrial forests and will complement existing DEFRA-funded work to protect mangrove forests in the marine environment. There are also several biodiversity and conservation projects in Madagascar through the Darwin Initiative.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will take diplomatic steps to encourage (a) donor governments and (b) private sector partners to scale up the global response to the hunger crisis in Africa.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK is pressing for an urgent collective response to food insecurity in Africa, building on the first G7 Famine Prevention Compact agreed during the UK's presidency in 2021. In April, the UK helped bring states together at a UN drought roundtable which mobilised roughly $400 million in new commitments for the East Africa region. The Minister for Farming, Fisheries and Food, Victoria Prentis and I attended the G7 leaders meeting in June where participants pledged an additional $4.5 billion of support, including a UK commitment of £372 million. We continue to support the G7 Global Alliance on Food Security and the UN Global Crisis Response Group to mobilise support from other donor governments.
I have written to the World Bank President and the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator to encourage them to do more. The UN has confirmed a scale-up of efforts in Somalia and Ethiopia. The Multilateral Development Banks, including the World Bank and Africa Development Bank, have in total announced more than $35 billion of funding. The Banks are rapidly approving projects, totalling $24 billion at the World Bank and $1.1 billion at the African Development Bank, directly supporting vulnerable households and farmers and supporting a shift towards more resilient agriculture.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how the G7 pledge of $4.5 billion to fight global hunger will support the immediate needs of people in the Horn of Africa, Sudan, South Sudan and the Sahel.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Famine prevention is a key priority for the FCDO. The UK played a leading role in the famine prevention global call to action launched in 2020 as well as the G7 famine prevention and humanitarian crises compact. With G7 allies, and in support of the UN Global Crises Response Group, we agreed to address the causes and consequences of the global food crisis through a Global Alliance for Food Security, a joint initiative which will be launched by G7 Development Ministers.
The UK will work closely with these organisations including through our network of country-based advisors to ensure that this money is used effectively and that allocations are made accordingly to need, including in the Horn, Sudan, South Sudan and the Sahel.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations she has made to the Government of Sudan about their denial of a visa to Dame Rosalind Marsden, consultant to the United Nations and former British Ambassador to Sudan.
Answered by Vicky Ford
As publicly stated by our Ambassador in Khartoum on 23 May, we are disappointed that the Sudanese authorities have chosen not to renew the visa for Dame Rosalind Marsden. The decision is unfortunate especially given the request of the Sudanese authorities for the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), and its partners to devote more attention to support for peacebuilding. In her capacity as a senior consultant to the UN in Sudan since July 2021, Dame Marsden has been supporting a series of integrated peacebuilding assessments, intended to help UN Agencies and partners design and prioritise support.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what humanitarian assistance the Government is providing to Anglophone regions in Cameroon, including to those internally displaced by continuing armed conflict, in 2022.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The crisis in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon has had tragic impacts on the lives of civilians. The UK has called for continued humanitarian access, and on 14 April, alongside the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Cameroon and other UN Member States, we joined the launch of the 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP). The HRP outlines how humanitarian actors will support 2.6 million people living in crisis areas with multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance. Over the last five years, we have allocated over £21 million aid to Cameroon, which has included food supplies, sanitation, healthcare and social protection. This is supporting the World Food Programme and International Committee for the Red Cross to assist those affected in the North-West and South-West regions.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the impact on the humanitarian situation in South West Cameroon of the suspension in late March of the activities of the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), further to the ongoing detention of four MSF staff members by the Cameroonian Government.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The humanitarian situation in the North West and South West (Anglophone) regions of Cameroon continues to have a tragic impact on civilians. Violence between separatist groups and Government forces has displaced 1.1 million people; over 2 million people require humanitarian support and 850,000 children are without safe access to school. MSF is an important health actor in the North West and South West regions and its temporary withdrawal has left gaps in health service provision which will disproportionately impact vulnerable populations. The UN is trying to manage these gaps; for example in April it allocated $1.7 million Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) funds to address a cholera outbreak in the South West, which typically the MSF would have been well placed to cover.
We have allocated over £21 million of humanitarian support for needs in Cameroon over the last five years, and regularly call for continued humanitarian access. We continue to engage with UN and other humanitarian actors active across Cameroon to ensure that urgent needs are met, including most recently with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on 29 April, on the impact of the suspension of humanitarian activities.