Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department provides to small charities that provide international development assistance.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
DFID’s Small Charities Challenge Fund opened in September 2017 as a pilot fund to support small British charities working towards the Global Goals. 53 grants to small British charities have been approved and further grants will be announced shortly. Grantees include Welsh charity Bees for Development who are providing training for new beekeepers in Ethiopia and Ipswich-based P.H.O.E.B.E. who are setting working with women with mental health issues in Zimbabwe. We will launch the scheme as a permanent fund in Summer 2019.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to increase private sector involvement in delivering the global goals.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The private sector has a critical role to play in delivering the Global Goals. DFID is taking a number of steps to facilitate this, including:
- Harnessing the expertise, knowledge and resource of the UK private sector to deliver the Global Goals through the Great Partnership initiative.
- Supporting businesses to measure progress on delivering the Global Goals through our support for the World Benchmarking Alliance, launched in 2018, which will rank companies on their contributions to the Global Goals. We have also supported the Global Reporting Initiative, which helps businesses understand and communicate their impact on issues such as climate change and human rights.
- Supporting the UN Global Compact to encourage businesses to operate responsibly by aligning their strategies and operations in line with Ten Principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
- Investing up to £3.5bn of additional capital in CDC, the UK’s Development Finance Institution, which invests in businesses across Africa and South Asia to create jobs.
- Holding a National Conversation to find out more about the public’s views on how their savings and pensions can be invested in the Global Goals, while providing a financial return.
- Deepening our partnership with the City of London, through the Sustainable Development Capital Initiative, which is aiming to develop new investment products to mobilise private investment in developing countries to deliver the Global Goals.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to increase women’s equality throughout the world.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The UK aims to promote gender equality and secures women’s rights around the world, guided by DFID’s Strategic Vision for Gender Equality and the UK National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. For example, through UKaid, we have given nearly 17 million women access to modern methods of family planning and supported 5.6 million girls to gain access to a decent education since 2015. We recently made the largest donor commitment ever (£50 million) to ending female genital mutilation across Africa and announced a new UK government campaign to end period poverty globally.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department is providing to refugees in Cameroon.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
There are currently over 368,000 refugees in Cameroon from conflicts in North East Nigeria and the Central African Republic. We are providing £6.55 million in humanitarian support to Cameroon this year, including for protection, nutrition, health, food security and livelihoods to support these refugees and those internally displaced in the north of Cameroon.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of potential steps to reduce corruption in Pakistan (a) in general and (b) within the political system.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
As the Prime Minister recently confirmed at the UK-hosted Anti-Corruption Summit the UK and DFID are committed to tackling corruption with new measures to reduce opportunities, punish the perpetrators and empower people to demand that it stops. Corruption impacts on all aspects of public life in Pakistan. DFID Pakistan is working to support the Government of Pakistan, civil society and the private sector to address corruption by improving the business environment, creating more effective institutions and engaging citizens for better service delivery and accountability. By supporting reforms to the taxation sector, DFID Pakistan is seeking to support the Government of Pakistan to make it easier for tax payers to submit payments directly, thus reducing the opportunity for corruption. By supporting reforms to the management of public funds, and improving access to information DFID Pakistan seeks to further limit the opportunities for corruption by public officials. By supporting parliament, political parties and citizen groups, DFID and other cross-Government interventions ensure that the democratic institutions are more accountable and the state as a whole is more responsive to the needs and aspirations of the Pakistani people.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to (a) help up-skill and (b) provide technical education for the Bangladeshi workforce.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID is supporting the upskilling of the Bangladeshi workforce through several projects in both the informal and formal sectors. Through our support to the Underprivileged Children’s Educational Programme, a local educational institution, nearly 45, 000 children have received general education and over 13, 000 have received technical and vocational training. Of the latter, 90% have been placed in formal employment or become self-employed. The programme focuses on working children in slums who dropped out of school.
DFID also launched ‘the Skills and Employment Programme in Bangladesh’ in October 2015. The programme aims to provide private sector training opportunities, with a particular focus on supporting women and disadvantaged populations, in the ready-made garments and construction sectors.