Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what proportion of his Department's aid was targeted to projects (a) with gender equality as a (i) principal and (ii) significant objective and (b) that were not-gender related in the last 12 months.

Advancing gender equality and women's and girls' rights are a core part of this Government's mission and we remain steadfast in our commitment to this agenda.

The UK's Gender Equality Act 2014 (an amendment to the 2002 International Development Act, IDA), legally requires all overseas development funding to meaningfully consider the impact of how it will contribute to reducing gender inequality.

All ODA spend reported to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is screened against the gender equality policy marker and marked as 'principal' or 'significant' or 'not targeting'. This is a measurement of the proportion of aid that supports gender equality and women's empowerment.

The latest figures available (2019) show that of the former Department for International Development (DFID) and the former Foreign & Commonwealth Office's (FCO) total bilateral spend, 67% was marked as having gender equality as a principal or significant objective. This equates to £5.2 billion. These figures also show that 33% of the former DFID and former FCO's total bilateral spend was marked as not targeting gender equality.