Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support his Department is giving to West African countries that are victims of illegal fishing.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
DFID works closely with partner Governments to promote sustainable fishing practices, helping to reduce the impacts of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in West Africa and across the world.
As part of our commitment to protecting the global environment, the Government has provided £250 million in funding to the Global Environment Facility’s 7th replenishment (2018-2022), which helps strengthen the management of fisheries and marine-protected areas.
DFID provides a core contribution to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, which supports countries in sustainable fisheries management. Progress is set out in their flagship report ‘State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture’.
DFID is also supporting sustainable small-scale aquaculture through the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, and our support has contributed to improving the fish-based livelihoods of 51,235 households and 72,264 people.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government is taking to support the Congolese authorities to ensure that mines in that country are (a) well regulated, (b) follow health and safety procedures and (c) do not employ or use children as labour in those mines.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The UK is working to promote responsible and safe practices, including eliminating child labour and ensuring sound governance and regulation of the mining sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As a founding member of the European Partnership for Responsible Minerals (EPRM), the UK helps promote responsible sourcing of minerals. More recently, DFID has been working with the Carter Centre to improve transparency and governance in the mining sector.
The UK is very committed to addressing the three issues outlined on regulation, health & safety and use of child labour by encouraging compliance with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Mineral Supply Chains from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas. The implementation of this guidance will be made mandatory for the biggest importers in the EU via the EU Regulation on the Responsible Sourcing of Conflict Minerals. This will come into force in January 2021. The UK will continue to implement this regulation after leaving the EU as it will be rolled over into UK Law via the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to support indigenous groups in the Amazon region whose ecosystems are potentially threatened by oil and gas producers.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID works with the extractives industries (gas, oil and mining), governments and civil society in DFID priority countries to maximise the benefits from extractive industries, in a way that finances public services, enables sustainable and inclusive growth and reduces poverty.
While DFID does not have bilateral programmes or a direct footprint related to extractives industries in the Amazon Region, our forestry programming does support broader work in the Amazon with indigenous groups. For example, in June the Global Environment Facility (GEF), to which the UK is a major donor, approved $88 million of funding to the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Programme to protect this ecosystem. GEF programming is guided by its Principles and Guidelines for Engagement with Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Peoples Advisory Group.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps he is taking to tackle the transport needs of the global south to enable marginalised groups to engage in (a) education, (b) work, (c) healthcare, (d) leisure and (e) other life-supporting activities.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID’s transport projects are developing rural road networks and better transport services, such as affordable and accessible buses, to provide remote poor communities with access to services and better opportunities for trading.
For example, in Pakistan we are investing in highways that link more deprived areas to wealthier provinces; and in rural Nepal we have improved road access for isolated rural communities to schools, markets, and hospitals, reaching over two million people. We are also funding a £28m research programme to identify more cost-effective ways of improving transport connections for remote rural communities in Africa and Asia. This programme has developed new road standards and technical manuals which have been used on over 280,000km of rural roads.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to (a) protect old-growth rainforests and (b) support the communities that live in them.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
Stopping deforestation is essential to protect biodiversity, tackle climate change and promote sustainable economic development. DFID works to address the underlying causes of deforestation, such as stopping illegal logging and related corruption, ending unsustainable practices in the production of palm oil, cocoa and other agricultural commodities, and helping local communities to secure recognised legal rights to the forests which they depend on for their livelihoods.
For example, support to the Mapping for Rights initiative has helped over 1,000 communities in the Congo Basin map their forest lands covering more than seven million hectares. The communities use these maps as the basis for claims to secure their rights and to help ensure that the forests they depend on are not allocated to logging concessions.
Work to tackle deforestation is funded through the Forest Governance, Markets and Climate programme (£250m, 2011-21), which is tackling illegal logging and promoting trade in legal timber and Investments in Forests and Sustainable Land Use (£107m, 2015-23), through which DFID funds Partnerships for Forests (P4F). P4F works with companies to develop new and sustainable approaches to growing agricultural commodities, which protect forests and provide sustainable livelihoods. DFID also funds work to protect forests through the Indonesia country programme.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the timetable is for the publication of the Government's plan to achieve the sustainable development goals.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The UK’s first Voluntary National Review (VNR) of the Sustainable Development Goals will be published in the UK on 26 June and presented to the UN High Level Political Forum in mid-July. The VNR will review UK action both domestically and internationally in support of the Goals. It will also outline key challenges and next steps, recognising that while progress is being made, there is more work to do on all 17 Goals.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that Official Development Assistance is allocated to (a) ethical, (b) sustainable and (c) environmentally-sound projects.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Department for International Development’s approach to design and implementation of development projects is governed by a set of rules and standards that reflect good development practice.
These rules and standards emphasise the principle of doing no harm. This ensures that interventions do not reinforce social exclusion and predatory institutions; exacerbate conflict; contribute to human rights or safeguarding risks. The rules also emphasise the importance of sustainability and resilience to generate lasting benefits for poor people. This includes ensuring that our interventions do not create or exacerbate resource scarcity, climate change and/or environmental damage.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether he plans to end the use of private for-profit contractors in the aid industry; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of capping the salaries of aid charities’ CEOs.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID values the unique expertise all its partners offer in the administration of aid. To date, we have no plans to end our use of private for-profit contractors who play a small but vital part by bringing sector expertise, operational flexibility and innovation through, for example the early exploitation of new technology providing products or services in new or underdeveloped markets, enabling DFID to help people in some of the most challenging environments in the world.
DFID does not place a cap on salaries of aid charities’ CEOs, since we recognise that salaries are driven by competition and multiple market forces making it impractical to set a maximum salary. We do however subject all our partners to rigorous scrutiny of their effectiveness and value for money, in advance and throughout the delivery of our programmes. Our priority is to drive value for British taxpayers’ money, cost-effectiveness and impact in all our programmes.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent steps he has taken to support people in developing countries affected by acute food insecurity.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
As the third largest bilateral humanitarian donor, the UK is a global leader in supporting people in acute need, including those at risk of food insecurity. In 2017, we were amongst the first to raise the alarm and to provide support for populations at risk of dying from starvation in Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen and North East Nigeria. We provided £170 million for provision of humanitarian aid in Somalia in 2017, supporting those at risk of famine and in 2017/18 our support in South Sudan reached over 420,000 people with food assistance. Since 2013, we have spent approximately £1.3 billion supporting the scale up of nutrition services in humanitarian contexts including Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and the DRC.
Our approach is to act early to save more lives, and to build the resilience of communities and states to crises and shocks. Our work on humanitarian early warning systems raises awareness of crises where food security is deteriorating and informs timely responses to mitigate the impact of acute food insecurity. Alongside this, we also prioritise longer-term responses to support food security, including through agricultural programmes.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to support the safe management of health and hygiene services in developing nations to help tackle antimicrobial resistance.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major global health threat, and tackling it is a UK priority. DFID, alongside the Department of Health and Social Care, provides support to developing countries' health and hygiene services, which also supports tackling antimicrobial resistance.
DFID support includes work to prevent infection and, in turn, reduce the need for antimicrobials. For example, through DFID’s support to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, the UK will help immunise 300 million children between 2016 and 2020.
DFID also supports the prompt diagnosis and treatment of disease and the development of new drugs and diagnostic tools to treat resistant infection. DFID investment in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria contributed towards treating 102,000 people for drug-resistant tuberculosis in 2017. The Department of Health and Social Care’s £265 million Fleming Fund also supports low and middle-income countries to improve surveillance and laboratory capacity for addressing AMR.
Since 2015 DFID has also supported 40 million people to gain access to clean water and sanitation, and DFID also supports water, sanitation and hygiene in healthcare facilities, both of which are important for preventing infection.