Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact that cuts to Official Development Assistance have had on research projects concerning dengue fever in the UK.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The UK Government, through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, have made significant investments in global health research for novel health technologies and implementation research to combat diseases of poverty, including HIV, TB and malaria as well as Neglected Tropical Diseases. The FCDO has not supported direct research on dengue fever although it is addressed indirectly through our health systems research programmes and our support to technology development programmes such as the Liverpool based Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC).
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to tackle (a) malaria, (b) leprosy and (c) other neglected tropical diseases globally.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK is committed to driving down the number of malaria cases and deaths. This is closely linked with the UK's ambition to end the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (the Global Fund) is the UK's main financing mechanism for combatting malaria. We have been the third largest donor over its lifetime, contributing over £4.4 billion. The UK is also a leading investor in research and innovation to combat malaria and in market shaping interventions to bring down prices of new products and tackle barriers to widespread access.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that neglected tropical diseases programmes affected by a reduction in Official Development Assistance funding are able to continue operating.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The seismic impact of the pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take tough but necessary decisions, including temporarily reducing the overall amount we spend on aid, and exiting from some programmes, including the Accelerating the Sustainable Control and Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) programme. We will still spend more than £10 billion this year to fight poverty, tackle climate change, and improve global health, which remains a top priority for UK ODA. We will focus on the UK's position at the forefront of the international response to COVID-19 through our commitments to COVAX, Gavi, and WHO, and through bilateral spend where the need is greatest in Africa. Where we have taken the decision to exit programmes, this will be done in a measured way, working closely with our delivery partners.
The UK has made a significant contribution to global efforts towards protecting hundreds of millions of people from NTDs. Malaria is not classified as an NTD by the World Health Organisation. We remain committed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of reducing funding for neglected tropical disease programmes on progress towards the elimination of (a) malaria, (b) elephantiasis and (c) blinding trachoma.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The seismic impact of the pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take tough but necessary decisions, including temporarily reducing the overall amount we spend on aid, and exiting from some programmes, including the Accelerating the Sustainable Control and Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) programme. We will still spend more than £10 billion this year to fight poverty, tackle climate change, and improve global health, which remains a top priority for UK ODA. We will focus on the UK's position at the forefront of the international response to COVID-19 through our commitments to COVAX, Gavi, and WHO, and through bilateral spend where the need is greatest in Africa. Where we have taken the decision to exit programmes, this will be done in a measured way, working closely with our delivery partners.
The UK has made a significant contribution to global efforts towards protecting hundreds of millions of people from NTDs. Malaria is not classified as an NTD by the World Health Organisation. We remain committed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of reducing funding for neglected tropical disease programmes on the worldwide prevalence of (a) malaria, (b) elephantiasis and (c) blinding trachoma.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The seismic impact of the pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take tough but necessary decisions, including temporarily reducing the overall amount we spend on aid, and exiting from some programmes, including the Accelerating the Sustainable Control and Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) programme. We will still spend more than £10 billion this year to fight poverty, tackle climate change, and improve global health, which remains a top priority for UK ODA. We will focus on the UK's position at the forefront of the international response to COVID-19 through our commitments to COVAX, Gavi, and WHO, and through bilateral spend where the need is greatest in Africa. Where we have taken the decision to exit programmes, this will be done in a measured way, working closely with our delivery partners.
The UK has made a significant contribution to global efforts towards protecting hundreds of millions of people from NTDs. Malaria is not classified as an NTD by the World Health Organisation. We remain committed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of health workers in developing countries whose training to respond to covid-19 was funded from the UK aid budget.
Answered by Wendy Morton
UK Aid has long supported our partner countries to increase the availability of skilled, trained and supported health workers. These health workers are essential to the COVID-19 response and ensuring that essential health services continue to be accessible. UK aid funded organisations and programmes have flexed to enable health worker training and other activities required to respond to COVID-19. These include regional and country programmes working on health systems, reproductive health, neglected tropical diseases and water, sanitation and hygiene and our funding to multilateral partners including Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Gavi, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the World Bank.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to support the delivery of health improvements in Africa.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK is a leading global health actor, supporting improved health outcomes across Africa. We work in partnership with African states, civil society and multilaterals to end preventable deaths of mothers, new-born babies and children by 2030.
Averting preventable deaths and supporting Universal Health Coverage is the overarching goal of all UK health investments. Our priorities include: strengthening health systems; tackling specific health challenges (such as malnutrition, polio and neglected tropical diseases); leading efforts towards the manifesto commitment of ending the malaria epidemic; and supporting global health security.
The UK is the world’s second largest bilateral donor on family planning - the Women’s Integrated Sexual Health programme alone works to prevent 24,000 maternal deaths, including in 24 African countries; the UK is also the second largest government funder of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In 2018 the Global Fund, which disbursed 72% of its funding in sub-Saharan Africa, helped provide 18.9 million people with antiretroviral therapy for HIV; test and treat 5.3 million people for TB; and distribute 131 million mosquito nets to protect families from malaria. Our £1.44 billion support to Gavi (2016-2020) will vaccinate an additional 76 million children and save 1.4 million lives in 68 of the world’s poorest countries.
Asked by: Baroness Sheehan (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which projects have been funded by the Ross Fund since it was set up.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Ross Fund is a portfolio of programmes, identified in the UK Aid Strategy, led by either DFID or Department of Health (DH), aimed at combatting the world's most serious diseases.
DFID projects funded within the Ross Fund Portfolio are in four areas: 1) product development research, with support to the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, Medicines for Malaria Venture, International AIDS Vaccine initiative, Aeras – TB vaccine development, TB Alliance, Innovative Vector Control Consortium, International Partnership for Microbicides, PATH diarrhoeal diseases vaccines and treatments, PATH meningitis vaccine project and PATH malaria diagnostics; 2) research for epidemic response with support to the World Health Organisation (WHO) R&D Blueprint, joint DFID-Wellcome programme for epidemic response; 3) implementation research, with support to the Febrile Illness Evaluation in a Broad Range of Endemicities, the Coalition for Operational Research for Neglected Tropical Diseases; and 4) implementation programmes, with support to the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, Global Guinea Worm Diseases Eradication Programme, Nigeria: Tackling Neglected Tropical Diseases through an integrated approach, Support for the Elimination of Lymphatic FILARIASIS, Capacity building through the WHO Department of Neglected Tropical Diseases.
DH projects funded within the Ross Fund Portfolio are the Fleming Fund, Vaccine Network, UK Rapid Support Team and the Global AMR Innovation Fund.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has to support programmes to reduce tropical diseases in affected countries.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Tackling tropical diseases is a priority for DFID. In April 2017 the Secretary of State announced that the UK Government would invest in programmes to protect over 200 million people from the ill health caused by Neglected Tropical Diseases, which affect some of the world’s poorest people. DFID also continues to be a leader in the fight against malaria through our support to the Global Fund, our investment in research and the programmes we support in affected countries. We also support research into new diagnostics and drugs for malaria, and new products to tackle NTDs.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the future challenge of a growth in non-communicable diseases identified in her Department's Bilateral Development Review 2016, published in December 2016, what priority will be placed on the shift in balance of communicable and non-communicable diseases in steps taken to implement that review's conclusions.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The Bilateral Development Review made clear that Britain will continue to lead global efforts to fight the spread of infectious and communicable diseases, such as neglected tropical diseases, TB, and malaria.
We will also remain a leader in helping countries to build stronger health systems. This will help countries address both current and future health challenges, including non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The UK additionally supports some specific NCD programmes, for example research on mental health, support for hepatitis B immunisation that prevents liver cancer, safe cook stoves to reduce household air pollution, and improving diagnosis, treatment and care for children with cancer in Burma, Bangladesh and Ghana.