Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government is taking to prevent violence against children when UK aid is being distributed.

The UK is reducing violence through dedicated investments to protect children, alongside interventions embedded in wider development and humanitarian programming. This includes our £10 million funding to the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, which drives international ambition and progress through campaigns such as ‘Safe to Learn’, that aim to inspire action to end violence in schools. We have also provided £10 million in funding to UNICEF to prevent and respond to violence, abuse and exploitation of children on the move in Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan through a strengthened child protection system.

We have recently introduced a stronger approach to safeguarding children throughout the department’s programming and will seek to effect change across the development sector.