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Written Question
Developing Countries: Nutrition
Tuesday 1st September 2020

Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, when the Government plans to make its pledge of funding for Nutrition for Growth post-2020.

Answered by Wendy Morton

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 74465 on 22/07/2020.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Research
Tuesday 1st September 2020

Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what her priorities are for the GAVI board meeting to discuss the COVAX facility.

Answered by Wendy Morton

As GAVI's largest donor, the UK is proud of the impressive results GAVI has achieved in vaccinating over 760 million children, and saving 13 million lives since 2000.

As the world grapples with the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK has been clear that the equitable global distribution of a vaccine will be the best defence against it, enable collective recovery, and reduce the risk of repeat outbreaks. We therefore strongly support Gavi using its expertise and experience to lead on accelerating global access to COVID-19 vaccines via the COVAX Facility.

The UK was represented by two senior DFID officials at the GAVI Board, where the priority is to ensure that the COVAX Advance Market Commitment delivers timely and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines in the poorest countries.

The UK's overarching priority for its £1.65 billion contribution to Gavi from 2021-25 is to maintain and improve routine immunisation against vaccine preventable diseases in the poorest countries.


Written Question
Developing Countries: Overseas Aid
Tuesday 1st September 2020

Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the effect on local partners in the global south of a reduction in the UK's official development assistance budget.

Answered by Wendy Morton

Local partners are fundamental to the UK's delivery of ODA being effective and impactful. This is particularly demonstrated through their knowledge, partnerships and agility. Ministers reviewed every strand of the ODA budget, evaluating the impacts of spend and making sure we can maintain operational capacity. Prioritisation decisions in DFID were made at the project level and considered various criteria such as: how programmes contribute to development impact; value for money; national interest; the impact on suppliers and supply chains - including local partners; and to what extent we could feasibly save money from a specific project. Bilateral projects were also assessed against the vulnerability of each country.


Written Question
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Tuesday 1st September 2020

Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the Government's timescale is for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office becoming fully operational.

Answered by Wendy Morton

Following the announcement on 16 June of the Prime Minister's decision to merge the FCO and DFID work began immediately on creating the new department, which will be formally established in early September. The process of fully integrating DFID and FCO's operations in the UK and overseas will be developed and delivered through a phased transformation programme.


Written Question
Integrated Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy Review
Tuesday 1st September 2020

Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the Answer of 20 July to Question 73967, when the Government will begin targeted engagement with stakeholders on the Integrated Review, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy Review.

Answered by Wendy Morton

The Government continues to ensure that some of the best minds in the UK and beyond are feeding into the Review's conclusions.

We have started targeted engagement with academic stakeholders and will engage more widely still in the coming weeks; including with Parliament, Devolved Administrations, civil society, and our allies and partners. The Government has also now issued a Call for Evidence to help inform the Integrated Review. This will facilitate contributions from the public and our stakeholders with an interest and role in our nation's security and prosperity, and in tackling the global challenges the UK will face over the coming years.


Written Question
Department for International Development: Contracts
Tuesday 1st September 2020

Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department (a) has renegotiated or (b) plans to renegotiate contracts at a reduced value to account for a potential reduction in the Official Development Assitance budget.

Answered by Wendy Morton

The UK's 0.7 per cent Gross National Income target is directly linked to the performance of the UK economy. Like all other Government Departments, we need to make some tough prioritisation choices which will likely include the renegotiation of some of our contracts in light of the expected drop in GNI. In doing so, we will ensure that renegotiated contracts continue to deliver value for money for UK taxpayers and maximum impact for beneficiaries.


Written Question
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Tuesday 1st September 2020

Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 16 July 2020 to Question 71769, if she will list the (a) NGOs and (b) other stakeholders that have been consulted on the merger of her Department with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Answered by Wendy Morton

As with any government change of this nature, the announcement came first to Parliament. The Government will continue its ongoing engagement with key stakeholders, including on issues relating to the merger. Plans on how we will do this with different partners will be shared in due course.


Written Question
Overseas Aid
Tuesday 1st September 2020

Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with (a) Cabinet colleagues, (b) multilateral donor partners, (c) civil society organisations and (d) other stakeholders on (i) the potential reduction in the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget and (ii) governmental prioritisation of ODA spending.

Answered by Wendy Morton

The International Development Secretary has had ongoing discussion with key stakeholders during the review of ODA spending in 2020. She has worked with Cabinet colleagues throughout the HMG review to identify savings in this year's ODA budget. This involved participating in the meetings chaired by the First Secretary of State to oversee the review, and contributing to the final session of the review with the First Secretary of State and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. She wrote to all DFID private sector and civil society suppliers in May and published a statement on 1 June announcing that DFID would have to pause any new work given the GNI context. Following the outcome of the ODA savings exercise, the First Secretary of State has written to key suppliers to inform them about the outcome. This has been published on DFID's supplier portal, making it available to all DFID's suppliers. Regular and structured engagement was put in place with leading NGOs and CSOs, led by Baroness Sugg and DFID Permanent Secretary Nick Dyer to discuss prioritisation of aid spending during the review. A recent meeting with a number of CSOs took place on the 24 July, led by Baroness Sugg, which covered the conclusions of the review process.


Written Question
Developing Countries: Coronavirus
Tuesday 1st September 2020

Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department has disbursed to multilateral institutions in response to the covid-19 pandemic; and how much of that aid has reached the Global South to date.

Answered by Wendy Morton

The UK is playing a leading role in the international response to the Covid-19 pandemic, pledging up to £774 million of UK aid to help developing countries (the 'global south') address the immediate and longer-term impacts of the crisis. Of the £774 million, £220 million has gone to UN agencies in the UN's Global Humanitarian Response Plan (GHRP), such as the World Food Programme and UN Refugee Agency, as well as humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross and international NGOs. DFID is also adapting its programmes across its country network to respond to COVID-19 and address the needs of the most vulnerable, as outlined in the GHRP. This funding will help address urgent needs in vulnerable countries, accelerate progress towards a vaccine, reinforce infection control and help the poorest countries address the economic impact of the crisis.

On 4 June, the UK hosted the Global Vaccine Summit, where world leaders, foundations, corporations and organisations pledged $8.8 billion for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The UK remains Gavi's largest donor, having pledged £1.65bn for 2021-25 to help strengthen health systems in the global fight against COVID-19 and immunise a further 300 million children in the world's poorest countries against other deadly diseases. We are a leading donor and shareholder to the multilateral development banks, which have announced financial packages totalling more than £200bn. Given the unprecedented high demand for rapid finance, the UK has doubled its pledge from £2.2bn to £4.4 billion to IMF loan resources for concessional lending to low-income and vulnerable developing countries, and pledged up to £150m to the IMF Catastrophe Containment Relief Trust for the poorest countries to receive debt relief on IMF repayments.

We will continue to work closely with our multilateral partners and fora such as the G7 and G20 to galvanise the global fight against Covid-19 and shape the multilateral response to ensure it addresses the needs of the world's poorest and most vulnerable.


Written Question
CDC: Private Equity
Tuesday 1st September 2020

Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much the CDC Group has invested via private equity funds in each of the last five years.

Answered by James Duddridge

CDCs invests through Private Equity Funds to provide growth capital to companies in Africa and South Asia to create jobs and transform economies, focussing on the small and mid-size companies that face the biggest financing gap.

CDC's backing for Fund managers helps promote the adoption of higher Environmental, Social and Governance standards and support the development of self-sustaining local finance markets.

In the last five years CDC made new investment commitments to private equity funds of:

  • 2015 - £238m
  • 2016 - £289m
  • 2017 - £273m
  • 2018 - £311m
  • 2019 - £284m.