Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to include older people and ageing populations within the work of her Department.
Answered by Wendy Morton
My Department recognises that older people experience a range of complex barriers and face multiple exclusions in developing countries across the globe.
Ageing is an important part of DFID's efforts to ensure inclusion and our approach to leaving no one behind. For example, DFID’s Disability Inclusion Strategy and Strategic Vision for Gender Equality take a life-course approach, ensuring the delivery of transformative change for people all ages.
We are also supporting governments to make vital social protection systems more inclusive of older people. In Uganda, DFID continues to build on its partnership with the Government of Uganda to deliver a Senior Citizen Grant. The grant currently supports over 168,000 older people to help meet their nutritional and healthcare needs.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to recognise, promote and support the paid and unpaid work of older women as part of its economic empowerment programs.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women programme the UK Government invested in research to better understand the care economy, and the interventions that will most help women to become economically empowered and productive. The Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women programme undertook 14 research projects in 50 countries and promoted the use of research by decision makers. DFID is commissioning further research in a new phase which will include a focus on women’s unpaid care work.
DFID’s leadership on improving collection and use of disaggregated sex and age data seeks to empower older women (among other groups) to escape poverty. Our Inclusive Data Charter Action Plan sets out the steps we will take to work across the international system to develop tools, methods, and guidance on inclusive data.
UKAid is supporting the expansion of social protection programmes to empower older people. For example, the UK has supported the Government of Uganda over the last 10 years to deliver a Senior Citizen Grant. The programme currently supports 168,340 older people each year.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to support older people in conflict zones throughout the world.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The UK Government recognises that older people experience a range of complex barriers to access and are often excluded from humanitarian responses, including those conducted in conflict zones. The UK is firmly committed to ensuring aid reaches the most marginalised and vulnerable, including older people, in conflict and humanitarian crises.
Without high quality disaggregated data, designing and delivering effective programmes and responses that are inclusive of older people is almost impossible. That’s why DFID was one of the first organisations to adopt the Inclusive Data Charter. In March 2019, we published an Action Plan laying out the next steps we will take to better understand the situation of the poorest and most marginalised in all contexts and make decisions that positively impact the lives of people at all ages.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to advance the rights of older women in developing countries.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
DFID’s Strategic Vision for Gender Equality underlines the need to focus on each stage of the lifecycle if we are to achieve our ambitions to leave no-one behind. This includes recognising the contribution of older women and considering them in efforts to empower women economically.
Better data and understanding of the situation of older women is essential for tackling the poverty and discrimination they face. DFID is investing in improving collection and use of disaggregated data (by sex, age and disability) to enable us to empower and include those who are too often invisible or face additional barriers to escaping poverty, such as older people. For example, we have led the way on the Inclusive Data Charter Action Plan and worked with others to improve the international development system on disaggregated and inclusive data.
The UK is also committed to shining a spotlight on the vulnerabilities of widows globally, including raising awareness of the discrimination and abuse often faced by older widows. At the Commission on the Status of Women in March, the UK helped secure the first ever United Nations-level recognition of the need to invest in adequate measures to protect and support widows.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that older women and men are supported and empowered and that their rights are protected as part of the Government's commitment to the Leave no one behind principle.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
DFID believes that no one should face the indignity of extreme, absolute, chronic poverty, and as part of our commitment to Leave No One Behind, we will put the needs of the most excluded first. This means challenging the social barriers that deny people opportunity and limit their potential. Older people can experience a range of complex barriers and face multiple exclusions. They are more likely than any other age group to have disabilities.
Social protection mechanisms can play a crucial part in supporting the economic empowerment of older people. For example, the UK has been proud to partner with the Government of Uganda over the last 10 years to deliver a Senior Citizen Grant. The programme currently supports 168,340 older people each year.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to increase women’s rights in developing countries.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The UK is an international leader on gender equality and promoting women’s and girls’ rights. Gender equality is a top development priority and priority for the UK. We will not achieve any of the Sustainable Development Goals while gender inequality persists. Gender equality is considered in the design of all of DFID’s programmes. Our support is delivering results at scale – between 2015 and 2019, UKAid supported 5.8 million girls to gain a decent education; helped 23.5 million women and girls with modern methods of family planning; and reached 60.3 million children under 5, women of childbearing age and adolescent girls through our nutrition-related programmes.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to support children in conflict zones throughout the world.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to increase women’s rights in developing countries.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate she has made of the (a) number of children of school age in Afghanistan, (b) proportion of such children who were not in education and (c) proportion of those not in education who were girls in (i) 2010 and (ii) 2017.
Answered by Rory Stewart
In 2017, official figures show that UK support has helped more than 6.4m children attend school in Afghanistan, 38% of whom are girls. This is up from around 4 million children in 2009/2010, over a third of whom were girls. Figures on the number of children out of school are hard to verify, but the UN estimates the figures to be between 6-7 million over the past few years. A breakdown by gender is not available.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, which five countries have been the greatest recipients of UK foreign aid in each of the last three years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The five largest recipients of UK bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) spent by either DFID or other government departments is given in the Table below:
Table: Top 5 country recipients of UK bilateral ODA, 2013-2015
2013 |
| 2014 |
| 2015 |
|
|
|
Country | £m | Country | £ m | Country | £ m |
|
|
. | . | . | . | ||||
Pakistan | 338 | Ethiopia | 322 | Pakistan | 374 | ||
Ethiopia | 329 | India | 279 | Ethiopia | 339 | ||
Bangladesh | 272 | Pakistan | 266 | Afghanistan | 300 | ||
India | 268 | Sierra Leone | 238 | Nigeria | 263 | ||
Nigeria | 249 | Nigeria | 237 | Syria | 258 |
|
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Source: Statistics on International Development 2016