Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to end forced marriage worldwide.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Ending Child Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) remains a high priority for the UK Government at home and overseas. The UK has demonstrated its leadership through co-hosting the first ever Girl Summit in 2014, which galvanized global action to end CEFM and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Following the Girl Summit 2014 the UK has continued its global leadership on ending CEFM, including through support for UN Resolutions and advocating for a separate target on ending CEFM within the Global Goals. The UK has supported campaigns and country-led Girl Summits through its overseas network, raising awareness of the impact of CEFM and ensuring global commitments translate into country-level action.
The UK has committed £36 million towards ending CEFM around the world. This includes support for the UN’s Joint Programme to End Child Marriage working in twelve high prevalence countries and for grassroots civil society organisations working to challenge this harmful social practice. Domestically, the UK Government’s Forced Marriage Unit provides support to British Nationals overseas affected by forced marriage.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support children living in conflict zones to access education.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID’s priority areas in education are to improve learning, to reach all children – especially those in fragile states - and to keep girls in school and learning. The UK is one of the biggest bilateral donors to basic education in low income countries. Between 2010 and 2015 DFID supported 11 million children in school across 21 countries, 7.5 million of them in countries considered to be fragile. DFID has again pledged to support 11 million girls and boys with a decent education between 2015 and 2020. In addition, by 2017, our flagship £355 million Girls’ Education Challenge will enable up to 1 million of the world’s most marginalised girls to benefit from an education of sufficient quality to help transform their lives, including in countries such as Somalia and South Sudan.
DFID is also supporting initiatives to improve how the international community provides education in emergencies, including conflicts. This includes leadership to establish the ‘No Lost Generation Initiative’ (NLGI) in 2013 to prevent the loss of an entire generation of children to the effects of violence and displacement in the Syria conflict. As part of this support, the UK has allocated £115 million to provide protection, psychosocial support and education for children affected by the crisis in Syria. As a result, over 251,000 children have received formal and informal education inside Syria and in the region, allowing them to catch up on lost learning time and perform well in public school examinations. In addition, a key outcome of the recent ‘Supporting Syria and the Region Conference’, held in London on 4 February, is the commitment that, by the end of the 2016/17 school year,1.7 million children – all refugee children and vulnerable children in host communities – will be in quality education with equal access for girls and boys.
Ahead of the World Humanitarian Summit in May, DFID is also working with partners to improve how education is delivered globally in humanitarian and protracted crises.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if the Prime Minister will make an assessment of the number of people in Syria who have been displaced as a result of UK military intervention in that country.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The purpose of coalition airstrikes against Daesh is to degrade its ability to project military force within Syria and Iraq, which is one source of displacement as non-combatants flee from Daesh’s sphere of influence. Coalition airstrikes have been proceeding since September 2014. Coalition partners do all they can to minimise the risks of civilian impact of coalition military action in line with international law.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Answered by Grant Shapps
A full statement of progress on each of the goals and targets has been published in DFID’s Annual Report and Accounts 2014 to 2015.