Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what arrangements have been made for the provision of aid to the Karen people in Myanmar in response to recent violence in that country.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Through a range of funding instruments, international and local partners, DFID has provided humanitarian emergency support, livelihood activities as well as longer term health improvement programmes. This includes:
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department is working with the Karen National Union and the Karen Women's Organisation in the distribution of aid to the Karen people in Myanmar.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID is working with the Karen National Union and the Karen Women's Organisation across a broad range of activities which include distribution of humanitarian aid, nutrition support, health and capacity building.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions she has had with the World Bank on investing in local, clean and renewable energy for poor communities.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The Secretary of State has had no specific discussions with the World Bank about investing in local, clean and renewable energy for poor communities.
However, the UK is using its influence as a major shareholder to encourage the World Bank to step up its support for developing countries to invest in renewable energy. We do so in high level meetings, through our interventions in board discussions of the Climate Change Action Plan as well as in discussions on specific project plans to target cases where this is the most cost effective option for countries to expand their energy supply. The UK contributes to the World Bank’s work in this area through its core funding, as well as partnerships including the Energy Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP), the Climate Investment Funds and the Global Environment Facility. The UK strongly supports the World Bank’s work to increase access to cleaner, more efficient cooking and heating solutions, which now stretches across 15 countries with regional programmes in Asia, Africa and Central America.
The World Bank committed to 28% of its financial support being climate related by 2020 and to achieving a number of goals, including on renewable energy, in its Climate Change Action Plan 2016 – 2020. We are currently in discussions with the World Bank on setting even more ambitious targets for the period beyond 2020.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for International Development:
What steps her Department is taking to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK is the third-largest humanitarian donor to Yemen, with £205 million this financial year. This provides enough food for 3.4 million people for at least a month, nutrition support for 1.7 million people, and clean water and sanitation for an expected 1.2 million people. We play a leading role in lobbying all sides to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2017 to Question 64547, what discussions her Department had with the Department for Exiting the European Union on the drafting of the White Paper entitled The United Kingdom's exit from and new partnership with the European Union, Cm 9417, published in February 2017.
Answered by Rory Stewart
DFID and other Departments are working closely with the Department for Exiting the European Union to build a global UK with a strong new partnership with the EU after our exit.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions she has had with the Department for Exiting the European Union on the contents of the White Paper entitled The United Kingdom's exit from and new partnership with the European Union, Cm 9417, published in February 2017.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
DFID and other Departments, are working closely with the Department for Exiting the European Union to build a detailed understanding of how withdrawal will affect domestic policies.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans the Government has to support efforts to achieve goal 6 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on water and sanitation.
Answered by Nick Hurd
In the manifesto in April 2015 and in the UK Aid Strategy published in November 2015, we committed to help 60 million people get access to clean water and sanitation in support of goal 6 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
We will achieve this target through projects managed by our Country Offices, through projects managed from the UK and through our contributions to multilateral organisations such as the World Bank. We will continue to invest in country and regional programmes to improve water resources management, water efficiency and improve water quality, as well as drive value for money.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has for her Department's Future Fit Programme in each year between 2015-16 and 2019-20.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Future Fit initiative (2013-15) was an internal process to shape DFID’s response to climate change and resource scarcity in its development investments. Building on the lessons learnt through Future Fit, as set out in the new ODA strategy for the 2015 Spending Review DFID will have a greater focus on climate-smart development – particularly through investments in infrastructure, agriculture, cities, water and sanitation and health.
Through the International Climate Fund to date, the UK has helped over 15 million people cope with the effects of climate change and given 2.6 million people access to clean energy. The Prime Minister recently announced that over the next five years the UK’s climate funding will increase by at least 50%.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate she has made of the net effect of her Department's projects on greenhouse gas emissions in each of the next five years.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The principal channel through which the UK Government targets reductions in greenhouse gas emissions overseas is the International Climate Fund (ICF), managed jointly by DFID, DECC and Defra.
The ICF seeks to prevent emissions by supporting countries to shift to cleaner, low carbon approaches and technology. The expected savings by the end of this financial year are over 6 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. This is a result of a variety of programmes and interventions across developing countries which seek to exploit the economic benefits of clean energy technologies, avoid locking countries and cities in to high-carbon futures, help poor people to access energy, and reduce the risks of harmful climate change.
The latest results for greenhouse gas emission reductions, both achieved, expected to be achieved (by April 2016), and expected over the full lifetime of the programmes are as follows:
Achieved results (results reported by April 2015) | Expected results by April 2016 | Expected total benefits* | |
Reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions (Tonnes of CO2e) | 2,300,000 | 6,600,000 | 440,000,000 |
*Some ICF programmes will continue to deliver results long after our financial support ends. Expected total benefit figures include long term legacy benefits beyond the lifetime of the programmes, and outside of the 2011 – 2016 Spending Review period.
The full set of ICF results can be found here:
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what projects her Department is supporting in promoting free media in Burma.
Answered by Alan Duncan
DFID provides a global grant to BBC Media Action which includes work in Burma. In Burma, this has supported capacity-building with the state broadcaster, training of local journalists, and the launch of new programmes featuring opposition voices and the views of ordinary people.