Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2015 to Question 16005, what steps her Department is taking to promote water and sanitation within the (a) agriculture, (b) social protection and (c) education programme areas to tackle malnutrition.

In total, DFID reached over 62 million people with water, sanitation and/or hygiene in the five years to 2014/15. We are currently formulating our new portfolio to deliver on the UK government’s commitment to help a further 60 million people get access to clean water and sanitation by 2020. All DFID nutrition programmes are based on an assessment of the causes of malnutrition, including the role that lack of clean water and poor sanitation and hygiene plays in making children ill and therefore increasing risk of malnutrition.

DFID’s approach on agriculture for the coming years is set out in detail in the new DFID Conceptual Framework on Agriculture (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfids-conceptual-framework-on-agriculture). The Conceptual Framework focusses on the role of agriculture in supporting inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction, food and nutrition security and environmentally sustainable food production. This addresses key considerations on water.

DFID supports a range of social protection programmes, with a strong focus on social transfers. The transfers are non-contributory, regular and predictable grants to households or individuals, in cash or in-kind. They help poor and vulnerable people to increase their food consumption and diversify their diets, meet the costs of sending children to school, pay for health services, and meet other basic needs such as clothes, shelter, clean water and soap.

DFID provides access to water, sanitation and hygiene in schools through a range of programmes. Several projects under the Girls' Education Challenge (GEC) are implementing water and sanitation activities as part of their education initiatives. These activities include the construction and/or upgrading of toilets or other sanitation facilities, as well as communication and behaviour change activities to improve hygienic practices. Under this programme, Health Poverty Action (HPA) have constructed Eco-san toilets and girls’ changing rooms and Eco-Fuel have built disabled toilets in school to accommodate girls with disabilities.