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United Nations Population Fund

Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much was given by the EU to the UN population fund in each of the last 10 years. [54481]

Clare Short: This information is not readily available and to obtain it would involve disproportionate cost.

Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on the policy of the UN population fund with respect to the Chinese one child policy. [54482]

Clare Short: Like the Government, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) does not support China's one child policy. The objective of UNFPA's programme in China is to demonstrate that a voluntary, non-coercive

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approach to family planning can be effective in promoting sustainable population growth. UNFPA report that birth quotas and targets have been abolished, and abortion rates have fallen in the areas of China where UNFPA is working.

Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what oversight and scrutiny her officials have over the funding of the UN population fund; and if she will make a statement. [54485]

Clare Short: My Department's level of funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is based on an assessment of its performance in contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals—particularly those relating to HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health—and other international development targets. Our assessment of UNFPA's performance is based on regular feedback from DFID's offices in developing countries, and on studies by external evaluation experts. In addition, the UK (DFID) is a member of UNFPA's executive board which carefully scrutinises the fund's activities and performance.

Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on the level of funding made available to the United Nations population fund in (a) 1980, (b) 1984, (c) 1988, (d) 1992 and (e) 2000. [54480]

Clare Short: The UK's contributions to the United Nations population fund (UNFPA) in the years referred to were:

(a) £2 million

(b) £3 million

(c) £2.625 million

(d) £9 million

(e) £15.05 million.

Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what funds are being made available by (a) the United Nations Fund for Population Activities and (b) the International Parenthood Federation to fund population control in Peru. [54483]

Clare Short: Neither the United Nations population fund (UNFPA) or the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) support population control programmes in Peru or elsewhere.

In 2002, UNFPA's US$1.4 million programme in Peru is supporting action to reduce maternal mortality and to improve access to reproductive health information and care for young people. IPPF's US$246,716 programme in 2002 is supporting the promotion of a range of quality and affordable sexual and reproductive health services and information for poor people, including improving access to modern methods of contraception and support to combat gender-based violence.

Great Lakes Region

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development when she last discussed political security in the Great Lakes region of Africa with the UN. [54257]

Clare Short: I am in frequent contact with the UN about the security problems of the Great Lakes region and the means of ending the conflict there. I spoke to the

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Secretary General again this last weekend when we usefully were able to talk through a broad range of current issues on the Great Lakes.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on the peace process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with respect to (a) Tanzania and (b) Zimbabwe. [54259]

Clare Short: The peace process in the DRC falls within the framework of the 1999 Lusaka Peace Agreement to which Tanzania was not a signatory. However Tanzania is clearly interested in the stability of the Great Lakes region as a whole, particularly in relation to Burundi because of the large number of Burundian refugees currently in camps in Tanzania. The Tanzanian Government are active in seeking to persuade the Burundian rebel groups to agree a ceasefire with the Burundian Government. We continue to press for a full and inclusive settlement to the DRC conflict within the framework of the Lusaka Agreement, which inter alia provides for the withdrawal of all foreign forces in the DRC including those of Zimbabwe.

Pacific Regional Programme

Mr. David Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the total value was of aid and assistance given to her Department's regional programme in the Pacific in each of the last five years. [54465]

Clare Short: Funding to the Pacific provided through DFID's bilateral programme and through multilateral agencies, especially the EU, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the UN is as follows:

DFID bilateral programme

Financial year	£ million
1996–97	8.552
1997–98	5.765
1998–99	4.941
1999–2000	4.193
2000–01	3.831

£ million

Calendar year	EC	World bank	UN	Others
1996	3.8	0.1	0.7	1.1
1997	6.0	0.1	0.7	1.4
1998	6.1	0.1	0.6	3.2
1999	0.9	0	0.7	0
2000	7.0	0.1	1.0	2.0

Note:

Multilateral agencies (these are UK multilateral shares—'Others' includes the Asian Development Bank for which separate figures are not available)

Malawi

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much food aid (a) her Department and (b) the EU has provided to Malawi in the last six months. [54252]

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Clare Short: Since January, my Department has spent £4.6 million on direct food relief in Malawi. In addition, DFID approved £1.2 million on 26 April to help raise domestic food production over the winter season. The latter is expected to yield 75,000 metric tonnes of maize by September.

The EC has provided £0.3 million in direct food relief.

Rev. Martin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what further help she will give to Malawi to alleviate its famine. [55001]

Clare Short: Since January, we have spent £4.6 million on direct food relief in Malawi. At the end of April we released a further £1.2 million to help raise domestic food production over the winter season (expected to yield 75,000 metric tonnes of maize by September). A much larger programme to boost domestic food production, and timed to coincide with November rains, is in preparation.

We have also worked hard with other donors to help the Government of Malawi to develop a long-term national food security strategy. A working group made up of donors, government, civil society and the private sector is urgently considering how to improve food production, storage and marketing, all with the aims of preventing a recurrence of the current crisis.

Women's Organisations

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will list the women's organisations which have been consulted over the proposed legislation by her Department during the (a) 2000–01 and (b) 2001–02 Sessions; and if their responses have been published. [54831]

Clare Short: The Department for International Development has undertaken no public consultation over proposed legislation.

Equal Treatment

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she has established a baseline for policy appraisal against which to measure progress on equal treatment; and what progress has been made. [54829]

Clare Short: DFID is committed to a policy of equal treatment. In relation to DFID's role as an employer, we have adopted a Diversity Action Plan, put in place staff consultative groups to assist in promoting diversity in the Department, undertaken equality-proofing of our pay and appraisal systems, implemented positive action measures in the form of a bursary scheme for staff from ethnic minority backgrounds, and have published targets for improving representativeness of our staffing in respect of race, gender and disability. We are implementing diversity training as part of our management development programmes, have adopted a requirement for all senior staff to have a diversity component in their personal objectives, and have continued to insist on the application of an equal opportunities policy in respect of a wide range of other criteria (including age and sexual orientation) in all aspects of our employment policies.

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These initiatives, which represent only the key measures in a wide range of on-going actions on equal treatment, will be monitored and reported on in our 2002 departmental report and other systems including the Department's Service Delivery Agreement. It is not easily possible to summarise progress to date in terms of the impact of these initiatives. But the policy is one of continuous improvement and in October (in advance of the operative date of the EU equal treatment directive) the Department expects to implement a new personnel database system which will provide important baseline data against which overall progress can be measured in more quantitative terms thereafter.

In terms of our work to eliminate poverty, we work through our programmes and at the international level to address discrimination in legislation, policies and society so that excluded people have more control over their lives. Our work in this regard is set out in our strategy papers: "Realising Human Rights for poor people" and "Poverty elimination and the empowerment of women". These are available at www.dfid.gov.uk or through our public inquiry point, tel. [phone]. The empowerment of women is an essential precondition for the elimination of world poverty. This goal is recognised in the internationally agreed set of development targets which provide the core framework for DFID's programme. Related to these, we have a number of gender equity targets in our Public Service Agreement. Progress against these is set out in our 2002 departmental report.

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what new data series separated by gender, race, disability and age have been commissioned by her Department since August 1997. [54830]

Clare Short: DFID does not maintain any central record of data series in respect of its programme activities. As an employer, DFID maintains and analyses for internal purposes a range of human resources data on its staff, including gender, ethnic origin, disability and age. Since August 1997 this has been expanded to include analysis of our staff appraisal and promotion systems by, among other things, gender, ethnic origin, disability and age. The principal indicators, such as staff in post, are contained in DFID's departmental report 2002, a copy of which can be found in the House of Commons Library.

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