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 she plans to implement the Department's disability inclusion strategy in the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office from September 2020.
Answered by Wendy Morton
This Government is committed to supporting a long-term movement for change on the neglected global issue of disability inclusion. The Government remains steadfast in its commitment to this agenda.
The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy is expected to conclude later in the year, which will define the Government’s ambition for the UK’s role in the world and its outcomes will shape the objectives of the FCDO. Both the review and the merger are evidence of the Prime Minister’s commitment to a unified British foreign and development policy that will maximise our influence around the world, including on disability inclusion.
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 the Official Development Assistance spending of Government Departments will be reported against the OECD-DAC disability marker after September 2020.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK will continue reporting the disability policy marker in the official development assistance OECD-DAC annual data return after 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 steps she has taken to uphold the UN Global Goals promise to leave no-one behind.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK Government is committed to playing its part in Global efforts to achieve the SDGs and leave no one behind. Through both our COVID-19 response and in our future plans, we will continue to pay particular attention to the needs of the most vulnerable. We are working hard to ensure the needs and priorities of women and girls, people with disabilities, and vulnerable and at-risk groups in the crisis are met in the global response to the pandemic.
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 progress her Department has made on ending the preventable deaths of (a) mothers, (b) new-born babies and (c) children by 2030.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK is committed to ending the preventable deaths of mothers, new-born babies and children by 2030. Between April 2018 and March 2019 alone, DFID reached at least 23.5 million total women and girls with modern methods of family planning, saving 8,300 women’s lives and preventing the trauma of 89,900 stillbirths and 52,900 new-born deaths.
This is more important than ever given the COVID-19 pandemic. We are working to ensure essential health services continue despite the challenges. Our approach covers sexual and reproductive health and rights, maternal and new-born health, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene services, all of which can help prevent mothers, new-borns and children dying unnecessarily.
A core focus of our ending preventable deaths work is to partner with governments and international health actors to strengthen health systems in the poorest countries. We are also leading internationally: the UK hosted the Global Vaccine Summit on 4 June and raised $8.8 billion for GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance’s, next five years (2021-2025) of work, which includes the UK’s pledge of £1.65 billion. Using these vital funds, GAVI will immunise a further 300 million children and save up to 8 million lives against vaccine preventable diseases.
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 steps she is taking to ensure the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office maintains progress on ending the preventable deaths of (a) mothers, (b) new-born babies and (c) children by 2030.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK is committed to ending the preventable deaths of mothers, new-born babies and children by 2030. By aligning our efforts, the merger will maximise UK influence and expertise so that we are in the best position to deliver this commitment.
The Prime Minister, in his statement to the House of Commons, highlighted that the UK will need to work in partnership to help vulnerable countries to improve their health systems. This is essential to ending preventable deaths, as are the UK government’s recent reassurances that we remain committed to preventing and treating malnutrition, as well as advancing and defending comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights.
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 Official Development Assistance has been (a) allocated and (b) distributed to tackle the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK is at the forefront of the global response and has publicly committed up to £764 million of UK aid in addition to flexing existing programmes to respond to COVID-19. Following agreements and disbursement schedules DFID has disbursed £314 million to date.
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 he has made of the potential effect of the proposed reductions in Official Development Assistance expenditure on UK (a) humanitarian and (b) development assistance to Yemen.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
Yemen remains a key priority for the UK Government.
I announced that the UK will commit £160 million of new aid for the current financial year (2020/21) at the 2020 Yemen Humanitarian Pledging Conference on 2 June. This was the third highest pledge at the conference and brings the total UK commitment to nearly £1 billion since the conflict began in 2015.
This funding will be provided through humanitarian and development agencies and will provide support to at least 300,000 vulnerable people each month to help them buy food and household essentials, treat 40,000 children for malnutrition and provide 1 million people with improved water supply and basic sanitation.
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 cumulative financial value was of the projects and programmes which have received red ratings by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact in each of the last five years.
Answered by Wendy Morton
ICAI’s reviews cover thematic policy areas rather than individual projects and programmes. It is not possible to extract the cumulative financial value of projects and programmes covered by all reviews based on the methodology used.
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 cumulative financial value was of the projects and programmes which have received amber ratings by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact in each of the last five years.
Answered by Wendy Morton
ICAI’s reviews cover thematic policy areas rather than individual projects and programmes. It is not possible to extract the cumulative financial value of projects and programmes covered by all reviews based on the methodology used.
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 cumulative financial value was of the projects and programmes which received amber/red ratings by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact in each of the last five years.
Answered by Wendy Morton
ICAI’s reviews cover thematic policy areas rather than individual projects and programmes. It is not possible to extract the cumulative financial value of projects and programmes covered by all reviews based on the methodology used.