Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled International women and girls strategy 2023 to 2030, published on 8 March 2023, when he will publish a timeline of how he plans to meet the commitment that at least 80% of his Department’s bilateral aid programmes will have a focus on gender equality by 2030.

The International Women and Girls Strategy was published in March 2023 and we have committed to publishing a biennial progress report. The commitment that at least 80 per cent of FCDO's bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) programmes will have a focus on gender equality by 2030 reflects how we are prioritising gender equality in our work and investment moving forward. The most recent official data, sourced from the Statistics for International Development and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Creditor Reporting System, is available for 2022. This data indicates that in 2022, 58 per cent of FDO bilateral ODA programmes had a focus on gender equality (using OECD DAC markers Significant and Principal).