Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if the Government will make an assessment of the potential merits of developing an atrocity prevention lens framework similar to that used by the UN Office for the Prevention of Genocide to assist in decision-making on where to commit or remove bilateral aid and other aid assistance programmes.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The UK continues to be strongly committed to early and effective international action to prevent mass atrocities, which are of grave concern to the Government. The National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 (SDSR) underlined the importance the Government attaches to upholding international humanitarian law and to the prevention of mass atrocities through effective implementation of the UN agreed principle of the Responsibility to Protect.
The Government’s overseas network, strong international partnerships, and early warning mechanisms give the UK significant insight into emerging risks. HMG also produces an internal risk report on countries at risk of instability, which highlights regions in which there are increasing risks of instability, conflict and mass atrocities. The report draws on a wide range of sources and includes indicators that highlight the risk of mass atrocities occurring. The data assessment reflects best practice from NGOs and partner governments’ and is kept under regular review. Policy-makers also take into account atrocity risk analysis from partner governments, the UN and NGOs.
As set out in the SDSR and the UK Aid Strategy, the response to conflict, atrocity and other risks uses diplomatic, development, defence and law enforcement capabilities in an integrated manner. As such, addressing and preventing conflict, instability and state failure is a key priority running through UK aid policies and programmes. This includes the prevention of identity-based mass violence, alongside other forms of violence and instability.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether the Government plans to reinstate a bilateral aid programme with Burundi.
Answered by Nick Hurd
There are no plans for DFID to re-open the office in Burundi. Our bilateral programme in Burundi closed in 2012 following the 2010 Bilateral Aid Review. We continue to provide support to Burundi through Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA), an independent agency promoting trade and regional economic integration given that this is central to Burundi’s growth and prosperity. We have provided £10 million for TMEA work in Burundi since 2012. We also support Centrally Managed Programmes working in Burundi, covering areas such as food security and livelihoods. In addition, we are providing significant humanitarian support to Burundian refugees in the region and will consider providing humanitarian support in Burundi should a humanitarian crisis materialise.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will increase aid to Jordan in order to help that country cope with the inflow of Syrian refugees.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
At the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference, the Prime Minister announced that the UK will more than double our total pledge to the Syria crisis from £1.12 billion to over £2.3 billion. This funding will support those in need inside Syria and in the surrounding region which is dealing with the impact of the crisis, including Jordan. Final country allocations are still being decided but it is clear that aid from the UK in Jordan will rise compared to previous years.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will take steps to prepare to contribute from the public purse to the new education funding platform to be launched at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May 2016.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The UK has bold ambitions for the World Humanitarian Summit, which comes at a critical time given the number of people experiencing crisis. We are working with a range of partners, including the UN, government, NGOs and the private sector, to ensure it delivers transformative change to crisis response including education.
In the run up to the Summit, the UK has been playing a leading role in agreeing principles and global action on education in emergencies and protracted crisis situations, including at the Conference on Supporting Syria and the Region. We are co-funding the design of the new education funding platform and will take a decision whether to support this once the design has been fully appraised.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of the Government's humanitarian budget was allocated to education in emergency situations in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The amount of bilateral ODA spent on education programmes in fragile or conflict-affected states where humanitarian programming is also active for the last three years is: £143.9 million in 2012, £226.3 million in 2013 and £199.9 million in 2014. Between 2010 and 2015 DFID supported 11m children in school, of which 7.5m were in fragile or conflict-affected states. DFID has again pledged to support 11m girls and boys with a decent education between 2015 and 2020.
DFID is supporting improvements to how the international community provides education in emergencies, including leadership to establish the ‘No Lost Generation’ Initiative to provide over 251,000 Syrian children with education inside Syria and in the region. At the Conference on Supporting Syria and the Region on 4th February we were instrumental in getting the international community to agree that all Syrian refugee children and affected host country children should be in education – formal school or non-formal – by the end of 2016/17.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether she plans to discuss the issue of education for children in areas of conflict at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May 2016; and what plans she has to ensure children have access to education in those areas.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Education will be a significant theme in the World Humanitarian Summit and we will use this opportunity to promote our aims to improve learning outcomes, to reach all children in fragile states, and to keep girls in school.
DFID supports children overseas to go school and continuing learning even when they are forced from their homes. This includes our flagship £355 million Girls’ Education Challenge that will enable up to 1 million more of the world’s most marginalised girls to benefit from an education of sufficient quality and transform their lives. In addition, DFID is supporting improvements to how the international community provides education in emergencies, including support for the ‘No Lost Generation’ Initiative to provide over 251,000 Syrian children with formal and informal education inside Syria and in the region, allowing them to catch up on lost learning time and sit public school examinations.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to InsuResilience, the G7 Initiative on Climate Risk Insurance, if she will make it her policy to (a) allocate additional funding of £100 million to that programme, (b) scale up by at least £50 million weather-indexed microinsurance that provides direct coverage for smallholder farmers pastoralists and other vulnerable groups and (c) increase her Department's grant funding for the African Risk Capacity to £20 million in order to improve the capacity of that programme to meet its targets.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The UK supports the G7 Climate Risk Insurance Initiative and is committed to contributing to meeting the collective target set out in the Elmau declaration of helping up to an additional 400 million people in the most vulnerable developing countries to gain access to climate risk insurance by 2020. UK support under the Initiative includes a commitment of up to £100m to African Risk Capacity (ARC) and £15m for the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative. Of this, the UK has contributed £32m so far to ARC.
On scaling up support to weather indexed microinsurance, the UK currently provides some support to livestock insurance in Kenya to improve the product offered to pastoralists and increase the role of the private sector. The UK also provides index-based insurance through the CGIAR climate change, agriculture and food security research programme (CGIAR-CCAFS). In September 2015, the Prime Minister announced that the UK would provide at least £5.8 billion of climate finance over the next five years. This is likely to include further support for climate risk insurance.