Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she plans to take to tackle the rise in (a) gender-based violence, (b) child, early and forced marriages, (c) FGM and (d) other harmful practices faced by adolescent girls globally as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.

I am deeply concerned about the surge in gender-based violence (GBV), FGM and other harmful practices as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are urgently adapting existing programmes to ensure women and girls continue to access support during the lockdown. For example, in Nepal, DFID is financing safe spaces for women in nine shelters and 42 COVID-19 quarantine sites. In Uganda, DFID is supporting the Government's response to the spikes in GBV by funding 13 shelters across the country and working to ensure safety of frontline staff and survivors.

The UK leads the world in our support to the Africa-led movement to end FGM. In 2018 we announced a £50 million UK aid package – the biggest single donor investment worldwide to date – to tackle this issue across the most-affected countries in Africa. In February up to £3.5 million of this was allocated to the WHO and UN for vital work with governments and health systems to tackle the harmful practice.

Significant gains have been made in the last 10 years to reduce child marriage, but COVID-19 is putting this progress at risk. DFID’s flagship global programme to end child marriage supported just under 3 million adolescent girls to attend school and skills training in 2018 alone. The UN Global Programme is developing innovative ways to continue to reach and support vulnerable girls during the COVID-19 crisis, including moving services online.