Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that the covid-19 pandemic does not hinder global progress on gender equality.

We know that COVID-19 is disproportionately effecting women and girls globally, therefore gender equality plays a central role in FCDO's response. Through the UN's Financing for Development "Recovering Better for Sustainability" work strand, the UK has helped to create a set of international principles for a green, inclusive and resilient COVID-19 recovery, with gender equality at its core. FCDO continues to work with international partners to deliver on these proposals.

We have provided an additional £10 million to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to address reproductive health supply shortages and scale up reporting, protection, and support services for women and girls affected. We provided an additional £1 million to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, on top of our existing £21 million contribution, to support long-term interventions for survivors.

We are tackling violence against women and girls through our co-leadership of the UN's Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence and our plans to launch a new seven-year programme to scale-up effective interventions to prevent violence against women and girls.

The UK will put girls' education and gender equality high on the agenda in our G7 Presidency, and as co-hosts of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Replenishment we will place gender at the heart of GPE's work to transform education systems worldwide.