Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to end the preventable deaths of mothers, newborn babies and children across the world; and whether UK Aid has supported global interventions which seek to (a) ensure that every child has access to a measles vaccines, (b) reduce disruptions in antenatal check-ups and post-natal care and (c) provide essential nutrition services to children.

The FCDO is committed to working with others to end the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children by 2030. Our steps to deliver this commitment include: Support for efforts to protect children in low income countries through our commitment of up to £1.65 billion to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Over 2021-2025, Gavi will support the roll-out of the most comprehensive package of vaccines to the world's poorest countries, focusing the hardest to reach children. This will include immunising 490 million children against measles, averting approximately 1.4 million preventable deaths; Support for delivery of quality antenatal and post-natal care, including through the Global Financing Facility in 36 countries, which is helping countries challenged by service disruptions due to the pandemic; and; Promotion of a highly cost-effective set of nutrition services for women and children, including breastfeeding support, provision of nutritional supplements and treatment for acute malnutrition. Between April 2015 and March 2020, we reached 55.1 million young children, women and adolescent girls through our nutrition programmes.