Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Blue Planet Fund on levels of global poverty.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The strategic goal of the new UK International Development White Paper [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-development-in-a-contested-world-ending-extreme-poverty-and-tackling-climate-change] is to end extreme poverty and tackle climate change and biodiversity loss. Poverty reduction is at the heart of all ODA spend, as such, all Blue Planet Fund (BPF) programmes factor poverty reduction into their design and implementation. We produce and publish annual reviews for all BPF programmes assessing their performance. Alongside Defra, who are the HMG strategic lead for the BPF, we will use the recent ICAI recommendations to strengthen the BPF programme portfolio's coherence, effectiveness, and relevance, including its poverty impacts at portfolio and individual programme level.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the Blue Planet Fund.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
Lord Benyon is joint Minister of State between the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ocean is part of his portfolio in both Departments. As such, he is in regular contact with his Secretaries of State and other Ministerial colleagues in both departments, including on the Blue Planet Fund and many wider Energy, Climate and Nature issues.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what proportion of bilateral Official Development Assistance programmes have a focus on gender equality in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
Official data, sourced from the Statistics for International Development and OECD DAC Creditor Reporting System, is available for 2021. This data indicates that in 2021 59 per cent of FCDO bilateral ODA programme budget spend had a focus on gender equality (of which 49 per cent was marked as Significant and 10 per cent marked as Principal). As part of our new International Women and Girls Strategy, we will ensure at least 80 per cent of FCDO's bilateral aid programmes have a focus on gender equality by 2030. This is a reflection of how we are prioritising gender equality in our work and investment moving forward.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what proportion of bilateral Official Development Assistance programmes have a focus on supporting LGBT rights.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
The UK is proud to champion LGBT+ rights around the world. With no OECD Development Assistance Committee marker on LGBT+ rights, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is unable to track centrally all its spend on the issue. However, since 2018 the UK has allocated over £13.5 million to empower and build the capacity of grassroots LGBT+ organisations and human rights defenders. Last week, the UK launched a new LGBT+ rights programme, committing a further £40 million over 5 years. The aims of this programme include reducing violence and discrimination, improving inclusive access to public services and legislative reform.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what proportion of bilateral Official Development Assistance spend for financial year 2023-24 has been disbursed to less developed countries as of 28 November 2023.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
Official Development Assistance (ODA) is measured on a calendar year basis and the UK's ODA spend for the previous year is published in Statistics on International Development, available on gov.uk. Year-to-date figures are not available. The OECD will publish provisional figures on donors' 2023 ODA spend to Least Developed Countries and Low Income Countries in spring 2024. FCDO will publish Final Statistics on International Development for 2023, including a country-by-country breakdown of bilateral ODA spend, in autumn 2024.
The FCDO's ODA allocations for 2023/24 are set out in the FCDO Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much (a) bilateral and (b) multilateral Official Development Assistance has been spent in each year since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell
Data on Official Development Assistance (ODA) is provided in the FCDO "Statistics on International Development (SID)" publication. Table 1 provides a breakdown of UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) by bilateral and multilateral channels between 2010 and 2022. This information is also available on GOV.UK.
Table 1: Total UK ODA: by type (bilateral, multilateral), 2010 - 2022 (£ millions) | ||||||||||||||
2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | ||
Total Bilateral ODA | 5,190 | 5,260 | 5,560 | 6,721 | 6,822 | 7,662 | 8,534 | 8,795 | 9,229 | 10,403 | 9,532 | 7,234 | 9,640 | |
Total Multilateral ODA | 3,339 | 3,369 | 3,242 | 4,686 | 4,878 | 4,473 | 4,843 | 5,256 | 5,313 | 4,772 | 4,945 | 4,189 | 3,156 | |
Total UK ODA | 8,529 | 8,629 | 8,802 | 11,407 | 11,700 | 12,136 | 13,377 | 14,051 | 14,542 | 15,176 | 14,477 | 11,423 | 12,795 | |
Source: Statistics on International Development |