Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department has spent on aid and assistance to children in countries at war with Daesh.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The UK has been at the forefront of the response to the crisis in Syria and the region, and has pledged a total of £1 billion, our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis. Of this, £111 million has been allocated to provide protection, psychosocial support and education for children affected by the crisis in Syria and the region. This includes funding to establish women and children’s centres in Iraq– which provide counselling and support for women, and safe spaces for children to play and learn. In Syria, the UK is supporting children with food, shelter and health. The UK also helped launch, and mobilise international support for, the ‘No Lost Generation’ Initiative (NLGI), which aims to prevent a whole generation being lost to the Syria conflict through physical and psychological trauma and lack of access to quality education and other basic services.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will take steps to support the residents of the village of Susiya in the West Bank in the event of the village being demolished.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The UK is funding the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) to provide free legal support to Palestinian communities threatened with forced eviction, demolition and displacement and is also providing £1.1 million of technical assistance to support Palestinian villages at risk of demolition action to meet the requirements of the Israeli planning system. The UK will continue to raise concerns about demolitions and displacement with the Government of Israel on a regular basis and at the highest levels.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to work with (a) other governments and (b) global organisations to tackle violence against children.
Answered by Justine Greening
My Department works to prevent and respond to violence against children across a wide range of humanitarian and development programmes. For example, we support the “No Lost Generation Initiative” where the UK is funding education and psychosocial support for Syrian children to protect them from violence, abuse and exploitation.
To ensure lasting impact we seek to work closely with other Governments. This includes programmes such as our £35 million investment in ending FGM, through which we collaborate closely with 17 partner countries and UN agencies to end this practice. The UK is one of the largest Government donors to UNICEF, the lead UN agency on violence against children. In addition, we fund a range of other global organisations including Save the Children and World Vision, whose work includes ending violence against children.