Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to help eradicate world hunger.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID puts the Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, at the centre of our work to eradicate extreme poverty, deliver inclusive economic development and build resilience.
Spend through our bilateral and multilateral agriculture programmes to reduce hunger and under-nutrition has increased, from £243million (2012) to £484 million (2015) and roughly £600 million in 2016. We are also working to shape the multilateral agenda. The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program harness both public and private investments for SDG2 and implements through a range of multilateral institutions.
DFID is a global leader in addressing acute hunger through humanitarian and famine relief. DFID has also committed to improve the nutrition of 50 million people overseas by 2020 and published a Position Paper setting out our plans. Total spend on nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programmes has increased, from £304 million (2012) to £667 million (2015).
We are also supporting robust monitoring of progress against the agreed indicators for SDG2 to be achieved by 2030.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to reduce its use of single-use plastics .
Answered by Alistair Burt
In our 25 Year Environment plan the Government outlined a range of measures on how we will reduce the amount of plastic in circulation through reducing demand for single-use plastic. This included a commitment to removing all consumer single use plastics from the central government estate offices. DFID is fully dedicated to supporting this commitment.
We are developing strategies to phase out all single use plastics across our UK estate and are working closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to review options in overseas offices.
To date we have:
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many meetings (a) she and (b) officials of the Department have held with charities to discuss the sexual exploitation of women in the workplace.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Details of all external Ministerial meetings, including those with charities, are available in our transparency data on gov.uk. At official level, we regularly meet with partners and sexual exploitation and abuse is one of a number of issues that we raise.
The International Development Secretary has written to every UK charity that receives UK aid insisting that they set out the steps they are taking to ensure their safeguarding policies are fully in place and confirm they have referred all concerns they have about specific cases and individuals to the relevant authorities by 26 February. We are currently reviewing these returns and shared the first findings at the Safeguarding Summit on 5 March.
We have also established new Safeguarding Unit in DFID to urgently review safeguarding across all parts of the aid sector to ensure everything is being done to protect people from harm and we are hosting a safeguarding summit to bring together UK international development charities, regulatory bodies and independent experts to commit to drive up safeguarding standards and take bold steps to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse within charities and by staff abroad
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many meetings (a) she and (b) officials of the Department have held with charities to discuss the sexual exploitation of women in the workplace.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Details of all external Ministerial meetings, including those with charities, are available in our transparency data on gov.uk. At official level, we regularly meet with partners and sexual exploitation and abuse is one of a number of issues that we raise.
The International Development Secretary has written to every UK charity that receives UK aid insisting that they set out the steps they are taking to ensure their safeguarding policies are fully in place and confirm they have referred all concerns they have about specific cases and individuals to the relevant authorities by 26 February. We are currently reviewing these returns and shared the first findings at the Safeguarding Summit on 5 March.
We have also established new Safeguarding Unit in DFID to urgently review safeguarding across all parts of the aid sector to ensure everything is being done to protect people from harm and we are hosting a safeguarding summit to bring together UK international development charities, regulatory bodies and independent experts to commit to drive up safeguarding standards and take bold steps to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse within charities and by staff abroad
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department plans to support the maintenance of the operation of medical facilities during an electricity crisis in the Gaza strip.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK’s long term support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) assists UNRWA in their provision of basic services to 1.3 million people in Gaza, including basic healthcare. Additionally the UK is supporting approximately 1 million Gazans by providing clean water, rehabilitating sanitations facilities and promoting hygiene standards to stop the spread of disease through the United Nations Children’s Fund.