Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the proposed merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development (DFID) on employment at DFID’s office at Abercrombie House, East Kilbride.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Merging the departments will bring together the best of what we do in aid and diplomacy, and create new opportunities for staff. There are no plans to close DFID’s office in Scotland, where staff play a vital role in ensuring UK aid delivers results for the world’s poorest and value for UK taxpayers.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effect of the conflict in Yemen on the (a) health and (b) protection from violence of women and girls in that country.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Yemen remains the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with nearly 80% of the population, 24 million people, now in need of humanitarian assistance. This includes 1.1 million acutely malnourished pregnant or lactating women.
The conflict in Yemen has only served to exacerbate the specific vulnerabilities and the limitations faced by women and girls across the country, with the number of incidents of gender-based violence reportedly rising by 70% since the start of the conflict.
The country ranks last out of 144 countries on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index; women and girls continue to face entrenched gender inequalities that limit their access to services, livelihoods and other opportunities.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to prevent violence against women and girls in Yemen.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK is supporting measures to prevent violence against women and girls in Yemen as part of its £13 million of funding this financial year to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Office for Migration (IOM).
These measures have included medical support, legal services and psychosocial counselling to over 1,700 female sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) survivors in Yemen, as well as the establishment of twelve gender specific community-based committees to work on SGBV prevention.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the adequacy of (a) reproductive health and (b) gender based violence prevention services in its response to the situation in Yemen.
Answered by Alistair Burt
As part of its £96.5 million of funding to UNICEF in Yemen over the coming three years, the UK will support 800,000 people with reproductive health services. This includes support for over 300,000 people with family planning advice, 292,000 women with antenatal check-ups and 117,000 women during childbirth.
The UK is also supporting measures to prevent violence against women and girls in Yemen as part of its £13 million of funding this financial year (2018/2019) for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and International Office for Migration.
These measures include medical support, legal services and psychosocial counselling to over 1,700 female sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) survivors in Yemen, as well as the establishment of twelve gender specific community-based committees to work on SGBV prevention.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to help deliver on the commitments of the Call to Action on Protection from Gender Based Violence in Emergencies.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
In co-chairing the Call to Action States and Donors Working Group, DFID uses its influence to further advance the Call to Action Road Map of commitments. DFID is a member of the Global Steering Committee of the Real Time Accountability Partnership (RTAP) for protection from Gender Based Violence in emergencies which puts Call to Action commitments into practise. We have integrated Call to Action commitments on preventing violence against women and girls into our humanitarian funding mechanisms, core funding to multilateral agencies as well as bilateral funding to international NGOs through the Rapid Response Facility (RRF).
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of her Department's budget has been (a) allocated to and (b) disbursed on gender based violence prevention in 2018-19.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The UK is a world leader in championing prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls through research, programmes and partnerships. Our £25million What Works to Prevent Violence programme is the largest global investment in research into prevention of violence against women and girls. The Department for International Development is committed to maintaining the UK’s global leadership in this area. Work to prevent violence against women and girls in DFID consists of standalone prevention programming, integrated violence prevention and response programmes, and a wide range of interventions incorporated into wider education, women’s economic empowerment and social protection programmes. This complexity means that we do not specifically track all this spend as gender-based violence prevention.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to prepare for the 2019 Women Deliver Conference in Canada; and if her Department will increase future gender based violence prevention funding.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The UK is a proud supporter of women’s rights internationally. Women Deliver 2019 will be an important moment to rally global support for this agenda. We are currently in discussions with the organisers about how best the UK can engage. Far more needs to be done to combat the appalling levels of violence that women and girls experience every day around the world. The Department for International Development’s ground-breaking research into violence against women and girls has demonstrated that violence is preventable, and we are committed to using this evidence to scale up our work to prevent violence and to influence our international partners to do the same. That is why in November my Right Hon Friend the Secretary of State announced an additional £50m to tackle Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). This was just the latest demonstration of the UK Government’s commitment to doing more to improve the lives of women and girls in all contexts. I also hope it will encourage other governments to step up and invest more in preventing violence against women and girls in all its forms.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effect of the continued military offensive on Hodeidah port on the delivery of humanitarian aid in Yemen.
Answered by Alistair Burt
We welcome the positive outcomes of peace talks in Stockholm. A pause in fighting around Hodeidah has been in place since 14 November.
As we have consistently made clear, all parties must ensure that Hodeidah and Saleef ports and onward supply routes are kept open, and commercial and humanitarian flows are not disrupted.
UK aid partners continue to deliver life-saving support in Hodeidah as part of our £170 million response in Yemen this year, including access to 75,000 litres of clean water a day, and cash transfers to 21,000 people displaced from Hodediah.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for her policies of the World Food Programme announcement that there has been a nearly 50 per cent decrease in operations at Hodeidah port in recent weeks.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Red Sea Ports are currently operational and continue to import most of the food and fuel on which Yemenis rely. For most of this year imports have been robust and in some cases exceeded pre-war levels. We are however concerned about recent reports of a reduction of imports into Yemen.
To maintain confidence of commercial importers, the UK recently worked with the US, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates to agree measures with the Central Bank of Yemen to issue letters of credit to provide foreign currency so that importers can purchase food on international markets. This will help strengthen imports. It has also resulted in an appreciation of the Yemeni Riyal, increasing the purchasing power of ordinary Yemenis.
It is imperative the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Saleef remain operational. Yemen relies on imports to meet 90% of its basic needs like food and fuel. We therefore welcome the positive outcomes of peace talks in Stockholm. A political settlement is the only way to bring long-term stability to Yemen and to address the worsening humanitarian crisis.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to respond to the risk of famine in Yemen; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The newly published Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) Report highlights growing food insecurity in Yemen over the past year, with the overall number of food insecure people rising from 17 million to over 20 million (70% of the population). In response urgent action is needed to improve economic conditions and maintain food supply chains into and throughout the country, including Hodeidah and Saleef ports and routes out of the city.
To maintain confidence of commercial importers, the UK recently worked with the US, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to agree measures with the Central Bank of Yemen to issue letters of credit providing foreign currency so that importers can purchase food on international markets. This has resulted in an appreciation of the Yemeni Riyal, so that ordinary Yemenis are able to buy food that is in the markets.
The UK is playing a leading role in combating hunger in Yemen through our £170 million in aid this financial year, which will help meet the food needs of four million Yemenis for one month. However, a political settlement is the only way to bring long-term stability to Yemen and to address the worsening humanitarian crisis. We therefore welcome the positive outcomes of peace talks in Stockholm.