Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the funding his Department has provided to NGOs to help support Rohingya people in Myanmar.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has provided over £30 million in humanitarian and food security support for the Rohingya and other Muslim communities in Rakhine state since 2017, reaching over 160,000 Rohingya people, and is the largest donor of water, sanitation and hygiene services to Rohingya Internally Displaced Persons camps in central Rakhine. The UK also works to provide essential health services to approximately 3.3 million people in Myanmar, including in Rakhine, through a multilateral programme with the International Organisation for Migration. FCDO programmes undergo an annual review of effectiveness, using a results framework. These are published to the Development Tracker website [https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk].
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2024 to Question 13138 on UNRWA: Finance, if he will publish a breakdown of funds allocated to (a) OCHA, (b) UNICEF, (c) the World Food Programme, (d) Egyptian Red Crescent Society and (e) any other partners.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
UK funding to specific agencies and organisations includes the following:
•£7.75 million to the OCHA Pooled Fund to support up to 139,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank with food, water, sanitation, health, education and protection services through NGOs
•£1.35 million to OCHA to support analysis of needs and coordination of humanitarian aid
•£7.75 million to UNICEF to support up to 89,200 beneficiaries in Gaza with protection, nutrition, education, health, Water Sanitation and Hygiene services, and Gender-Based Violence services
•£8.25 million to the World Food Programme to provide in-kind food assistance to up to 53,500 beneficiaries
•£7.75 million to Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement to support up to 140,000 beneficiaries in Gaza and the West Bank with food, livelihoods, water, sanitation, health and protection
In addition, the UK is providing:
•£1.5 million to WHO to support Emergency Medical Teams and essential medical supplies
•£1 million to Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO) to facilitate medical supplies to Gaza
•£900 thousand to UNOPS to facilitate humanitarian access and delivery of aid supplies
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the funding his Department provided to the International Organization for Migration for healthcare projects for the Rohingya people in Myanmar.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has provided over £30 million in humanitarian and food security support for the Rohingya and other Muslim communities in Rakhine state since 2017, reaching over 160,000 Rohingya people, and is the largest donor of water, sanitation and hygiene services to Rohingya Internally Displaced Persons camps in central Rakhine. The UK also works to provide essential health services to approximately 3.3 million people in Myanmar, including in Rakhine, through a multilateral programme with the International Organisation for Migration. FCDO programmes undergo an annual review of effectiveness, using a results framework. These are published to the Development Tracker website [https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk].
Asked by: Earl of Sandwich (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following reports from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that there have been almost 10,000 suspected cases of cholera in Sudan as of 20 January, what channels of assistance, if any, they are using to combat the outbreak; and what discussions they have had with other international partners as part of those efforts.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Due to the ongoing conflict, Sudan continues to grapple with mass displacement, disease outbreaks and malnutrition. The health system has been overwhelmed by attacks on health facilities and the scarcity of medical supplies, equipment, health workers and funds. The World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting Sudan with cholera treatments and direct support to cholera isolation centres. The UK is funding Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and health activities in Sudan via the Sudan Humanitarian Fund, UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). We are supporting the WHO's Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network and have deployed a senior epidemiologist to bolster the national response.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their policy paper Confronting antimicrobial resistance 2024 to 2029, published on 8 May, how the importance placed on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in that paper will be implemented; and whether there will be increased finance for WASH.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Proactive infection prevention and control, in terms of patient safety and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) within the public health system, is a core element of the national action plan.
Nationally, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) works with partners to provide the evidence base and technical expertise to support best practice in infection prevention and control (IPC) in health and care and other settings, such as schools and prisons. A dedicated research facility at Porton Down also supports studies on the effectiveness of IPC procedures and the role of the built environment in AMR transmission.
Internationally, AMR activities are supported through a variety of global health initiatives. The World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on AMR and Healthcare Associated Infections, which is housed by UKHSA, also provides support for training on AMR diagnostics and surveillance. School aged children can also learn about microbes, IPC, antibiotics and vaccination from free resources via the e-Bug programme.
The Government continues to finance WASH and global WASH leadership. levels of finance in 2025 and beyond will be confirmed by a Government-wide spending review.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps he is taking to help mitigate the risk of an outbreak of (a) cholera and (b) other water-borne diseases in Gaza.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK provides support to UN agencies and other international partners who are active in the sectors of water, sanitation and hygiene. To date, we have also delivered over 74 tonnes of aid ourselves and are now providing £60 million in humanitarian assistance, tripling this year's aid budget for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but there is still more to do. Current conditions do not enable these actors to work at sufficient scale, and so we continue to press the UN and Israel for unhindered humanitarian access and substantive, repeated humanitarian pauses that allow aid to enter. We are also pressing for an increase in types of humanitarian items allowed in, including fuel, shelter and public health/sanitation items, alongside food, water and other medical items. Shelter and public health/sanitation items are desperately needed to avoid many more deaths from infectious disease and from exposure.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what his Department’s priorities are when allocating funding to curb antimicrobial resistance (AMR); and with reference to the recommendations of the UK's Special Envoy on AMR and the CEO of WaterAid UK, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of changing priorities to favour spending on the improvement of water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure in healthcare facilities.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a priority for the UK Government. We recently announced up to £210 million for the Fleming Fund. Improvements in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) to prevent infections, including WASH in health care facilities, is critically important. The UK-funded Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition supported 14,800 facilities with WASH supplies and trained 460,000 health workers on hygiene improvements. UK bilateral ODA WASH spend totalled £46 million in 2022. Multilaterals spend was £63 million in 2021. In our ODA funding decisions, we seek to achieve multiple benefits, including through our investments in WASH.
Found: Debate on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene and sustainable development
Mentions:
1: Lord Benyon (Con - Life peer) across multiple sectors and into multilateral programmes to increase financing for nutrition and build - Speech Link
2: Lord Benyon (Con - Life peer) Also, in water, sanitation and health, we are increasing the proportion that we give in ODA money to - Speech Link
3: Lord Benyon (Con - Life peer) Other areas, for example water, sanitation and hygiene, are crucial, because if children are suffering - Speech Link
4: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con - Life peer) travel with Nestlé to see the work it was doing in Africa in regard to the provision of nutrition, water - Speech Link
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cholera outbreak reported by the United Nations as affecting 27 localities across seven states with 78 associated deaths, with more than 3 million people estimated to be at risk by the end of the year.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Due to the ongoing conflict, Sudan continues to grapple with mass displacement, disease outbreaks and malnutrition. The health system has been overwhelmed by attacks on health facilities and the scarcity of medical supplies, equipment, health workers and operational funds. The World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting Sudan with cholera treatments (including antibiotics, oral rehydration solution, intravenous fluids and rapid diagnostic tests), in addition to providing direct support to cholera isolation centres. The UK is funding Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and health activities in Sudan via the Sudan Humanitarian Fund, UNICEF, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). With support from WHO and health partners, the Ministry of Health is coordinating efforts (in areas of the country that are still accessible) to scale up access to clean water and sanitation facilities, as well as ensuring affected and at-risk communities are aware of transmission risks and proper hygiene practices to reduce contamination risks and prevent further spread of the outbreak. We are supporting the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (WHO), and will deploy a Senior Epidemiologist to assist with coordination efforts to bolster the national response. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.