Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the level of demand for aid from countries that receive UK aid where people are persecuted due to their faith.

The UK Government works to ensure that UK aid is allocated to those who are most vulnerable and most in need of this assistance. This includes persecuted religious communities, who are assessed when determining those most in need of protection and assistance. DFID’s use of country context analysis has increased the extent to which religious dynamics and religious groups are factored into all of our country programmes. DFID undertakes interdisciplinary analysis of a country’s politics, society, state and economy to identify the most significant problems that hinder development and the main entry points and opportunities to create change. There is a strong emphasis on how politics, security, and demographics interact with economic growth and human development. This includes the role of religion and the persecution of religious minorities.

On 8 June, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for Human Rights, hosted a roundtable to hear from faith leaders and faith-based development organisations about the challenges minority faith communities were facing, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic.