Lynne Featherstone: Increasing women and girls participation in politics, peace processes, business and public life, and as active citizens with a voice is central to achieving DFID’s Strategic Vision for Girls and Women and is crucial if we are to achieve gender equality. DFID works through a range of programmes to address the long term structural barriers to women’s political empowerment. For example, DFID...
Lynne Featherstone: Investment funds that invest in early-stage businesses can provide risk capital, create jobs and provide access to services such as healthcare, energy, housing, education and sanitation. In December 2012 the Secretary of State for International Development, the right hon. Member for Putney (Justine Greening), announced the DFID Impact Fund, which is managed by CDC. Through the DFID Impact...
Lynne Featherstone: DFID recognises the importance of vocational skills training for reducing poverty among young people in Nigeria, and is currently considering options on how best to support the sector to increase the economic opportunities available to marginalised groups of young men and women in six of the poorest states in Northern Nigeria.
Lynne Featherstone: I have not, as yet, had the pleasure of meeting representatives of the Nigerian diaspora in UK. My Department, however, is actively involved in helping improve the investment climate for entrepreneurs in Nigeria, including for Nigerians living abroad. An example of this was our recent support for a review of Nigeria's Investment Policy which was presented at President Goodluck Jonathan's...
Lynne Featherstone: DFID supports a number of initiatives that help private sector development in Nigeria. These include work alongside CDC to fund investment opportunities in Northern Nigeria; technical assistance to increase lending by Nigerian banks to small and medium enterprises, through the International Finance Corporation (IFC); and start up grants for Nigerian firms through the Business Innovation Facility.
Lynne Featherstone: DFID support international partners monitoring the disease’s spread. The UK is one of the largest funders of the international agriculture research consortium, the CGIAR (Group on International Agricultural Research). The CGIAR, FAO and national partners have established a task force to track the disease spread and to develop an effective response. In Mozambique, where a new outbreak of TR4...
Lynne Featherstone: I am pleased that the Agreed Conclusions reached by member states at the 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) included a call for a dedicated goal on gender equality, women’s and girls’ empowerment and the human rights of girls and women. It also called for ending all forms of violence against women and girls; economic empowerment; leadership and participation in...
Lynne Featherstone: The UK Government’s expenditure on HIV is provided through: UK Government contributions to multilateral and global initiatives that work on HIV prevention and treatment; HIV-specific bilateral projects and programmes; bilateral support to health systems and service delivery; and by supporting HIV related research. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is the principal mechanism the...
Lynne Featherstone: The new catalytic financing mechanism will aim to provide incentives to attract new private funds alongside increased domestic budgets for high impact nutrition interventions. The scope and governance of the fund is being developed with the Children's Investment Fund Foundation. No funds have been disbursed. DFID will consider its own contribution once the mechanism and governance have been...
Lynne Featherstone: DFID is supporting projects that use satellite data. DFID supports the World Agroforestry Centre to use data to help monitor and assess agriculture land use and environmental risks including land degradation. DFID contributes to the UK Environment Observations Framework Coordinating Climate Observations Group which co-ordinates Her Majesty's Government activities supporting the development...
Lynne Featherstone: Lesotho does not receive any direct development funding from the UK, but does benefit through DFID’s Southern Africa Regional programmes. UK support to Lesotho is mainly delivered through Civil Society Organisations such as Gender Links, Commonwealth Business Council and Common Ground Initiative, a joint fund with Comic Relief.
Lynne Featherstone: DFID is the largest financier of the Global Partnership for Education and in Tanzania has supported the award of a £57 million grant to implement the “Literacy and Numeracy Education Support (LANES)” programme. LANES targets the acquisition of reading, writing and numeracy skills among children in and out of school, targeting especially the marginalised. DFID's programme in Tanzania...
Lynne Featherstone: The UK ended Budget Support to the Ugandan Government following concerns about corruption last year. Our development programme continues to support poverty reduction and growth in Uganda. DFID is providing £16.3 million over four years to support an improved HIV prevention response in Uganda, which will include provision for specifically targeting Most At Risk Populations (MARPS). We also...
Lynne Featherstone: DFID continues to closely monitor the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa. DFID has committed $30,000 (£17,908) for infection control training and supplies in Liberia through UNICEF. In Sierra Leone, DFID is supporting Ebola sensitisation efforts in communities and through UNICEF has prepositioned medical supplies to districts on the Liberia and Guinea borders. We are also...
Lynne Featherstone: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Chope. I begin by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Guy Opperman) on securing this important debate. As the Syrian conflict enters its fourth year, I genuinely welcome his efforts to bring the plight of Syrian refugees to the House’s attention. I will give a broad description of what we are doing, but I hear loudly...
Lynne Featherstone: This country has an honourable history of receiving asylum seekers, and I am pleased that the first refugees under the new scheme arrived in March. Our young people are going to fight in Syria with what I hope are misguided good intentions. The Foreign Secretary and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have made it absolutely clear that such activity should not be embarked on, as it is...
Lynne Featherstone: I will come to that. It is important to recognise the impact the refugee crisis is having on the host communities, which is why we are working with partners to ensure that host community needs are incorporated into all programmes. If the host communities are not supported, only the refugees are getting support, which causes all sorts of knock-on problems. The UK also gives £12 million of...
Lynne Featherstone: I will, but I want to get to my hon. Friend’s point.
Lynne Featherstone: I thank my hon. Friend. I am keeping an eye on the time, because I want to address the specific points raised. Although aid is getting through, it is not enough. Access is extremely unpredictable. Thousands of people in desperate need wait each month for relief that does not arrive because humanitarian agencies are prevented from reaching them. To address the point more directly, I should say...
Lynne Featherstone: Indeed. I do not doubt my hon. Friend’s access to it; I am merely explaining that it was to have been released officially later today. We need to maintain pressure on the regime and its allies. We need to maintain our dialogue with neighbouring countries, regional partners and the opposition. As the resolution makes clear, we fully intend to take further steps if the demands it sets out are...
