Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what work has been undertaken by his Department to develop religious literacy among its staff in the last two years.

We have developed a position paper on faith and development; we continue to host seminars (such as the seminar in November on freedom of religion or belief); we have commissioned and circulated research on religion and development and have facilitated formal training. A limited number of DFID staff have already attended the newly re-launched Foreign and Commonwealth Office “Religion and Diplomacy” course. We plan to encourage more DFID staff to attend this course in the future.