Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, which objectives her Department is seeking to achieve by investing in girls’ education in developing countries.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
In the three years from 2015 to 2018 DFID supported at least 5.6 million girls to gain a decent education. The objective of our investment is to support girls to attend school, learn whilst they are there, and help ensure the critical transition from primary to secondary education. Through this work we are supporting girls to achieve basic literacy and numeracy and are helping to equip them with the skills they need to succeed in jobs of the future.
Evidence for the benefits of investment in girls’ education includes:
We believe that investing in educating girls is both the right and the smart thing to do, both socially and economically. Our work is guided by DFID’s 2018 Education Policy – Get Children Learning. This sets out how educating girls can: support better health choices, boost earnings, build social cohesion and help institutions and public services work better.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she has taken to ensure that funding allocated by her Department from the public purse does not find its way into the hands of terrorists in the Palestinian Territories.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK has a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and robustly controls against the diversion of aid. We have strong controls in place to monitor spending, including due diligence assessments, annual financial audits of project spending and regular field visits; all to ensure that UK aid reaches the intended beneficiaries. DFID complies with UK and international counter terrorism legislation and DFID funding agreements commit partners to understand and comply with international counter terrorism legislation.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the criteria her Department uses to assess the benefit to the UK of the allocation of Overseas Development Assistance.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
Through our statutory commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI on aid and the way that we spend money to reduce poverty, we promote UK values and influence in the world. We are, for example, tackling the drivers of instability and extremism, stopping infectious disease from reaching our shores, and building prosperity in our trading partners of the future. All UK aid is in the national interest.
Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) must be spent in compliance with the eligibility criteria set out by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). DFID strives to ensure that each project on which we spend British taxpayers’ money contributes both to reducing poverty in developing countries and to the UK national interest, which is defined as a combination of health, security, prosperity and influence. DFID officials are expected to demonstrate the benefit to the UK when seeking approval for new programmes.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the criteria is for her Department to allocate financial resources to an overseas country.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID supports delivery of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Government’s objectives as set out in the 2015 UK Aid Strategy. Bilateral Official Development Assistance is allocated based on considerations of need, i.e. levels of poverty, ability of countries to fund themselves and whether DFID can add value. The 2016 bilateral and multilateral development reviews set out our approach to allocations in more detail. Our project design approach makes sure every project focuses on eradicating poverty, and projects are rigorously appraised to ensure value for money.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what mechanisms her Department has in place to monitor the spending of overseas aid to prevent abuse and corruption.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID operates in challenging contexts providing a wide spectrum of aid and assistance.
DFID has rigorous controls to ensure that aid reaches those for whom it is intended and delivers results.
DFID does not give money to organisations or governments if we are not confident that they will manage it well.
DFID has a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and has in place a wide range of standard controls and measures to protect UK aid. These include:
Rigorous risk assessments and monitoring requirements for all programmes. All DFID programmes are assessed at inception to identify and address the risk of aid diversion, such as weaknesses in a recipient’s financial systems. Where necessary, programmes will insist on extra measures of safeguard, and we will put in place arrangements such as continuous audits.
Proactive fraud risk management – better fraud prevention through good programme design and strong monitoring. We use monitoring visits, financial spot checks and audits to ensure all funding is used for the purpose it was intended.
Programme agreements and contracts which are designed to ensure partners are accountable for all funding we provide. We expect all international agencies to have the same zero tolerance approach to fraud that we have if they are to receive taxpayers’ money.
A rigorous process of due diligence, where partners must demonstrate accountable and transparent governance structures and financial procedures before we fund them. This provides assurance on their capacity and capability to deliver DFID programmes, allows DFID to identify and understand potential risks, and ascertain if these can be mitigated and managed. Due Diligence on programme partners includes an in-depth assessment of fraud risk.
Fraud awareness sessions risk management training for staff.
Regular internal and external audits.
Where there is suspicion of corruption and fraud DFID will always take action; and if fraud or corruption is uncovered DFID will always work to recover UK taxpayers’ money.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the total amount of money is that the UK Government has provided towards funding the Global Financing Facility.
Answered by Alistair Burt
At the Global Financing Facility (GFF) replenishment on 6 November the UK pledged an additional £50m over 3 years from 2020. This is in addition to the £30m already pledged at last year’s Family Planning Summit in London. Our 2020 funding will be released on achievement of a set of reforms agreed between the UK and the GFF. This funding will increase domestic and private sector resources for child, adolescent and women’s health and nutrition.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what progress she has made on the implementation of the UK national action plan on women, peace and security 2018 to 2022, published in January 2018.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The first annual report to Parliament on the UK National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security 2018 – 2022 is expected to be published in December.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding her Department has allocated to programmes to eradicate the Guinea worm in (a) Ethiopia, (b) South Sudan, (c) Mali, (d) Chad and (e) other African countries.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK provided a total of £39.5m in funding to the Guinea Worm Eradication Programme between 2009 and 2018. Funding allocations to countries were flexible to allow scale up or down as required. Between 2015 and 2018, of a total of £9.5 million, the estimated breakdown of spending by country was:
£1.235 million in Ethiopia;
£4.75 million in South Sudan;
£0.285 million in Mali;
£1.71 million in Chad; and
£1.52 million in non-country specific spending.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what progress her Department has made in collaboration with other countries on the eradication of the Guinea worm.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK Government – in collaboration with the Carter Center, the World Health Organisation, and endemic countries – has contributed to a decline in Guinea worm cases from 3.5 million in 1986 to 30 cases in 2017.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the outcome of the recent Kuwait Conference; and what the extent was of the funding agreed at that conference.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Pledges totalling over $30billion were made at the Kuwait conference, for which the Government of Iraq, conference organisers and donors should be congratulated. I reiterated that UK Export Finance will offer up to £750 million of export finance in any given year for infrastructure projects in Iraq under its ten year MoU.
A large number of private sector companies from numerous nations also attended, highlighting the interest from potential foreign investors. We will now need to ensure that the Government of Iraq converts this strong international support into sustainable reconstruction, reconciliation and private sector development.