Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department has provided support to developing countries to formulate regulations on mobile financial services.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Work to support formulation and improvements to regulations on mobile financial services is a key part of DFID’s portfolio of financial sector programmes around mobile financial services across Africa and Asia. The UK is also an active advocate at the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), including as co-chair of the key subgroup on regulation and standard-setting bodies.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department has provided support to developing countries to encourage financial inclusion.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID has made an important contribution to date in developing robust, efficient and inclusive financial markets. Between 2010-2015, UK Aid achievements included providing 68.9 million people, including 35.9 million women, with access to financial services.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of mobile financial services on levels of extreme poverty in developing countries.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Mobile financial services have a key role to play in connecting people to basic services, supporting economic empowerment and building resilience of individuals and families. DFID operates a number of financial inclusion programmes, many of which include elements to promote the development of mobile financial services, and all are required to undertake a formal Annual Review process to measure progress towards their expected impact. Our most significant programme in this area to date has been the technology programme for branchless banking, which at completion had provided access to financial services for just over 59m people globally.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many people of each gender work in her Department.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID provides quarterly reports to the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The information provided at 31 December was as follows:
Gender | Headcount |
Male | 914 |
Female | 1152 |
Total | 2066 |