Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions she has had with her French counterpart on sharing best practice on poverty reduction in Africa.

The UK and France have a historically strong development partnership and work together in a number of areas including gender, education and climate change, as well as in the Sahel. The Secretary of State and I have held several meetings with the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the French Development Agency (AFD) to share best practice and to improve donor coordination, particularly as the UK scales up its engagement in the Sahel.