Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to ensure that the voices of women working in developing countries to tackle violence against women are heard in the global decision-making processes.
Answered by Justine Greening
I am proud of the leadership role that my Department has taken, and continues to take, in tackling violence against women and girls. The voices of women and girls were at the heart of Girl Summit 2014 and the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, and we are making significant progress towards ending FGM, child early and forced marriage and sexual violence in conflict across the world. My Department regularly consults with women’s rights organisations and women in developing countries to tackle violence against women and girls, including through global decision-making processes such as the Sustainable Global Goals.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding her Department has allocated to projects tackling violence against women and girls in each of the last three years.
Answered by Justine Greening
As with many other areas of development work, the need to tackle underpinning social norms to address violence against women and girls means that many of our programmes are multi-year and complex, so it is very difficult to say precisely what the figure is each year. 90 programmes in our portfolio contain elements which address violence against women and girls directly, according to the mapping work undertaken by the consultancy Oxford Policy Management in August 2014. These include sectoral programmes working on education, health, security and justice and humanitarian response.
Funding for our 19 VAWG-focused programmes (those programmes where VAWG is the only issue addressed) increased significantly between 2012 and 2014, from just under £20 million in 2012 to £131 million in 2014. However, as this does not include the many programmes where VAWG is mainstreamed, the total figure spent on this area by my department will be significantly higher.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to ensure that resources are reaching women working at the grassroots in developing countries defending women's rights.
Answered by Justine Greening
Supporting women’s rights organisations is vital to challenging harmful social norms and supporting collective action to bring about change. DFID supports women’s rights organisations through several Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) such as Womankind, Vital Voices and through the UN Trust Fund to end Violence against Women.
In March I announced £8 million for AmplifyChange, an initiative which supports community based organisations to take action on a number of neglected sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender issues including child, early and forced marriage (CEFM), female genital mutilation (FGM) and violence against women and girls (VAWG).
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding her Department has allocated to projects tackling violence against women and girls in each of the last three years.
Answered by Justine Greening
DFID has 109 programmes that address violence against women and girls, an increase of 63% since 2012. 19 programmes focus entirely on violence against women and girls, totalling £131 million since 2012. Addressing violence against women and girls is mainstreamed across the other 90 programmes.