Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what proportion of bilateral programme funding had a gender equality policy marker in the last two years for which information is available; and what proportion of that funding had gender equality as a (i) principal and (ii) significant objective.

Official data, sourced from the Statistics for International Development and OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Creditor Reporting System, is available for 2020 and 2021. This data indicates that in 2020, 69 per cent of FCDO bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme budget spend was gender-marked, with (1) 63 per cent marked as Significant and (2) 6 per cent marked as Principal. In 2021, 61 per cent of FCDO bilateral ODA programme budget spend was gender-marked, with (1) 54 per cent marked Significant and (2) 7 per cent marked as Principal. As part of our new International Women and Girls Strategy, we commit to at least 80 per cent of FCDO's bilateral aid programmes having a focus on gender equality by 2030. This is a reflection of how we are prioritising gender equality in our work and investment moving forward.