Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether he plans to consult businesses about how to measure progress on towards Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality and women's empowerment.

It is critical that there is a shared understanding of progress on all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 5. This enables us, collectively, to take further action to have maximum development impact and reach those most at risk of being left behind. We support our UN partners to assess global progress on the SDGs accurately, by disaggregating all relevant DFID programme results and research findings by sex as well as by age, disability and location. DFID is increasingly developing partnerships and leveraging new opportunities with business to accelerate progress towards achieving SDG 5, and our new Economic Development Strategy commits us to working with the private sector to deliver growth that is socially responsible and empowers women.