Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister for Africa, of 8 January 2019, Official Report, column 117WH, what (a) analysis and (b) evaluation his department has completed of the UK’s work with the international community to support the electoral environment in Uganda during the 2016 presidential election.

The majority of UK funding in support of the electoral environment in Uganda in 2016 was channelled through the multi-donor Democratic Governance Facility (DGF). The DGF provided support to work covering voter education, training for women and youth political candidates, media training for journalists, inter-party dialogue, election monitoring and support to the electoral commission. Our funding helped promote the discussion and adoption of meaningful electoral reforms; improvements in citizen participation and engagement in the electoral process; and the identification and mitigation of risks of violence related to the electoral process. Evaluations carried out across each of these strands found evidence of significant positive impact and will be used to inform future programmatic and project support.