Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that critical services to prevent (a) maternal, (b) newborn and (c) child deaths in developing countries are maintained during the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK government’s commitment to end the preventable deaths of mothers, new-born babies and children by 2030 is more essential now than ever given the COVID-19 outbreak. DFID is stepping up efforts to ensure sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health services continue to be prioritised in our response to the pandemic, to stop mothers and babies dying unnecessarily.
We are funding and working with agencies such as the World Health Organisation, UN Population Fund, the Partnership for Maternal New-born and Child Health and the Global Financing Facility (GFF) to support governments to maintain health systems in affected countries, provide technical guidance and advocate for sustained reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health services. This includes filling essential supply chain gaps and supporting frontline health workers. The UK supported the GFF Investors Group last week in calling for strong, collective action to avoid a potential secondary health crisis from disruptions in health services from COVID-19.
The Global Vaccine Summit in June is also seeking to raise at least US $7.4 billion for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance 2021 – 2025 strategy. The UK has committed £1.65 billion, the equivalent of £330 million per year, to support Gavi’s goal to immunise a further 300 million children and save up to 8 million lives.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that charges for healthcare are not a barrier to the treatment of covid-19 in developing countries.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has, so far, pledged £744 million of UK aid to help end the COVID-19 pandemic, in support of the coordinated international response through the international financing institutions, multilaterals and global health initiatives, and DFID programmes. This is to meet the urgent health, humanitarian and economic needs of vulnerable people in developing countries and to support developing new vaccines, diagnostics and treatments.
The UK continues to champion universal health coverage (UHC) as vital to ensuring access to quality essential services for all and helping to protect everyone from infectious diseases, including COVID-19. UHC includes ensuring that no one is impoverished through paying for health services and reducing financial barriers for essential services, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that humanitarian (a) access and (b) policies are protected in the global response to the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
To date, the UK has committed £744 million of UK Aid to support global efforts to combat COVID-19. We are working with all our international partners to ensure aid is effectively distributed to vulnerable countries.
The UK is a key contributor to the UN’s Global Humanitarian Response Plan (GHRP), which focuses on humanitarian access, through securing the continuity of the supply chains for essential commodities and services, and supporting the most vulnerable, including protecting and assisting refugees, Internally Displaced Peoples, migrants and host communities.
We are co-leading work with Italy through the G7 to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable countries. A large part of this work is to ensure unhindered humanitarian access for vulnerable populations, and to make sure the global response is prioritising the most in need.
We are also using diplomatic channels to ensure that international humanitarian law and global commitments regarding the rights and protection of refugees and access to asylum are upheld in this crisis.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, from which budget allocation the £46 million package for funding a coronavirus vaccine has come from.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
The global race to find a vaccine for coronavirus has been bolstered by our £46 million package which has been funded from the UK ODA Crisis Reserve, which was established as part of the UK Aid Strategy in 2015.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is planning to take to implement her Department's Youth Agenda, published in April 2016.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
DFID is committed to empowering and engaging young people and we will continue to champion this across our work. For example, the next phase of the International Citizen Service (ICS) will have a renewed focus on diversity, employability and skills to not only give young people the confidence to engage in global issues, but also the skills to thrive as they transition into adulthood and the employment market. We are also working to enhance safeguarding practices for young people in tertiary education. Another example of our continued efforts is our leadership on tackling youth unemployment, with a particular focus on Africa. In addition, DFID is proud to sit on the Global Board of Generation Unlimited. This UNICEF-led multi-stakeholder initiative was launched in September 2018 with a focus on educating, upskilling, and empowering young people. Through our involvement we will amplify our voice and catalyse global action for young people.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what progress her Department has made on implementing its Youth Agenda, published in April 2016.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
DFID is committed to empowering and engaging young people. Since the launch of the Youth Agenda in 2016 we have: introduced youth panels across several of our country offices, launched an organisation-wide network of young people, supported a further 15,430 young people from all backgrounds to complete the International Citizen Service programme, supported youth-led research projects, and given youth voices a platform at a number of international summits including the Family Planning Summit in July 2017, the Disability Summit in July 2018 and the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in April 2018. We continue to champion young people in our overseas programming. For example, we are currently working with over 735,000 adolescent girls to support their transition into secondary school.
Between 2015 and 2018 DFID supported 11.4 million children in primary and lower secondary education, of whom 5.6 million were girls. Currently, DFID’s flagship Girls Education Challenge Fund has supported up to 1.5 million marginalised girls to benefit from a quality education.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure that projects that her Department co-designs and co-funds with the Department for International Trade promote women’s rights in UK trade with developing countries after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK is committed to promoting the economic empowerment of all women and recognises trade as an important lever for equality. DFID has been at the forefront of supporting the Department for International Trade to deliver on the UK’s commitment to a gender-responsive approach to trade once we leave the EU. The Prime Minister recently announced the SheTrades Commonwealth programme, which will enhance the competitiveness of women entrepreneurs in a number of Commonwealth developing countries, connecting them to markets and opportunities in the UK and the rest of the world.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure that projects that her Department co-designs and co-funds with the Department for International Trade promote women’s rights in UK trade with developing countries after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK is committed to promoting the economic empowerment of all women and recognises trade as an important lever for equality. DFID has been at the forefront of supporting the Department for International Trade to deliver on the UK’s commitment to a gender-responsive approach to trade once we leave the EU. The Prime Minister recently announced the SheTrades Commonwealth programme, which will enhance the competitiveness of women entrepreneurs in a number of Commonwealth developing countries, connecting them to markets and opportunities in the UK and the rest of the world.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2018 to Question 136643 on Bangladesh: Rohingya, if she will make representations to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh supporting the UNHCR request that more flat land be made available to relocate families who are in danger of the effects of monsoons in that country.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Secretary of State for International Development and Foreign Secretary wrote a joint letter on 20 March to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, asking her to save as many lives as possible by allocating additional land at lower risk of flooding and landslides, reducing density in the existing camps, and having evacuation plans in place. Minister Field made the same request to Minister of State Shahriar Alam on 27 March, and to Foreign Minister Ali on 19 April.
Following a visit by the United Nations Security Council to Bangladesh and Burma from 28 April – 1 May, we supported a UNSC press statement encouraging the international community to increase support to the Government of Bangladesh for emergency preparedness measures. We continue to work with the Government of Bangladesh and international agencies to support.