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EU Water Initiative

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Minister of State for International Development if he will make a statement on the EU water initiative, launched at the World Water Forum, in Kyoto in March 2003 and the UK's contribution to the EU initiative. [113608]

Hilary Benn: The EU 'Water for Life' Initiative was launched at the World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002 to secure greater co-ordination between EU member states and developing countries in developing water management and water use arrangements. The aim is to help make progress towards the Millennium Development Goal of halving by 2015 the proportion of people without access to safe water and the equivalent target agreed for sanitation at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg.

The potential outcomes of the initiative are: greater political commitment to action on water and sanitation; better water governance arrangements, including stronger partnerships between public and private sectors; development of regional and sub-regional co-operation on water management; and development of additional innovative funding mechanisms. The initiative operates through a framework of working groups on issues, and has regional components in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Mediterranean and Latin America.

The UK Government contributes through leadership of the Finance Component and membership of several other working groups including water and sanitation. We continue to support the EU Water Initiative and are working with EU member states to ensure that it moves from discussion to action on the ground, in order to deliver the Millennium Development Goal for water, sanitation and environmental sustainability.

Foreign Aid

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Minister of State for International Development how many countries receiving United Kingdom aid have agreed poverty reduction strategies with her Department; and how many she expects will be agreed each year to 2006; how many of these strategies she expects to be (a) multi-donor agreements and (b) to be superseded by multi-donor agreements; and which other bilateral and multilateral donors are working with the United Kingdom on multi-donor agreements. [113630]

Hilary Benn: The UK was influential in agreement being reached at the 1999 Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF that countries receiving debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative should produce Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) setting out how resources are to be used. These are the basis for support from the IMF, the World Bank and other donors. We believe strongly that a basic principle of these Strategies is national ownership, written in-country by the government, setting out the policies it intends to pursue to promote growth and reduce poverty. These Strategies are not therefore agreed with DFID, but we

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are aligning our bilateral development assistance programmes with them. To date, 26 low-income countries—all recipients of UK aid—have produced full PRSs. Of the 25 countries that have produced interim PRSs, we expect a number of these to develop full Strategies over the next year or two. DFID is working with these countries to help them with this.

Honours

Mr. Pope: To ask the Minister of State for International Development how many officials in his Department have received honours; and how many honours are held by his officials, broken down by category of honour. [111480]

Hilary Benn: Our records show that there are currently eight officials in DFID who have received honours related to official duties: one CMG, three OBEs and four MBEs. Data is not routinely kept on the number of awards held by individuals, awards not related to official duties, or awards already held by staff before joining the department.

Polio

Dr. Tonge: To ask the Minister of State for International Development what discussions he has had with his G8 counterparts regarding the commitment of additional funds to the WHO to eliminate polio by 2005. [111576]

Hilary Benn: DFID has provided US$357 million to support Polio eradication since 1988. We have on a number of occasions pressed G8 countries to fulfil the commitments made in Kananaskis to raise sufficient resources to eliminate polio in Africa by 2005. Indeed, we will be urging this at the G8 summit in Evian. We believe eradication is achievable, but will require resources and commitment from a broad partnership base. Discussions have been held with a variety of stakeholders, including the G8 and others.

Primary Education

Dr. Tonge: To ask the Minister of State for International Development what resources his Department has allocated to ensure that all children have the opportunity to complete primary education; and what recent discussions he has had with her G8 counterparts on (a) pooling and (b) increasing the resources dedicated to this aim. [112727]

Hilary Benn: Between 2002 and 2007 we intend to spend £1.3 billion on basic education, subject to agreeing high quality programmes with our partners. Of this, about £500 million will go to Africa and £800 millon to Asia. This figure of £1.3 billion compares favourably with the £700 million committed to Universal Primary Education since 1997.

However, it is important to realise that achieving Universal Primary Education is not an issue that simply requires the provision of more aid. Most of the countries with large numbers of children out of school are not seriously committed to Universal Primary Education. Most countries that are committed to reprioritising their own spending are receiving additional aid.

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There is broad consensus among international agencies that greater harmonisation of resources will increase aid effectiveness. We continue to underline the central importance of ensuring that strengthened efforts support country-owned strategies, as set out for low-income countries in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and linked to national budget processes. We will work with G8 to ensure that they increase support and resources to meet the education MDGs.

Sponsorship

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development which of his Department's projects have received sponsorship in the last financial year; who the sponsor was in each case; what the nature of each project was; what time-period was covered by each project; what the total cost of each project was; how much money was involved in each sponsorship deal; and if she will make a statement. [112393]

Hilary Benn: DFID did not receive any sponsorship in the last financial year.

Water and Sanitation

Mr. Roy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what policy the Government has adopted on what nations can do on their own to achieve the goal set by the United Nations on halving the number of people without access to water for nourishment and hygiene by 2015. [112604]

Hilary Benn: The Government supports country-owned Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), as the best way in which nations can achieve, on their own, the goals set by the United Nations on water and sanitation. PRSPs offer donors the opportunity to support a country's own priorities and reforms. They also help enhance and streamline the financing of water supply and sanitation. DFID works with partner governments to strengthen PRSPs and with donors to align their support.

Water supply and sanitation are consistently identified as a priority for the poor in participatory poverty assessments, and many PRSPs recognise the contribution of access to a safe water supply in reducing both income and non-income related dimensions of poverty. DFID advocates such an integrated approach to sanitation, water supply and hygiene promotion measures to combat poverty in our discussions with partner governments.

Mr. Lazarowicz: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many of the national poverty reduction strategies received by her Department include measures to increase access to clean water and improve sanitation; and how her Department encourages such activities. [111856]

Hilary Benn: Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) provide a country-owned framework to strengthen the impact of public action on poverty, and to promote progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Water supply and sanitation are consistently identified as a priority for the poor in participatory poverty assessments, and all PRSPs generally recognise

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the contribution of access to a safe water supply in reducing both income and non-income related dimensions of poverty.

A review of Full and Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers in Sub-Saharan Africa has found however that treatment of water supply and sanitation is not comprehensive and often inconsistent. In particular, sanitation and solid waste management received limited and inadequate attention. Also, despite the significant continuing work on sector reforms (in decentralisation, and rural and urban water supply and sanitation), their incorporation in the country PRSP initiatives requires considerable strengthening. The Uganda PRSP was a notable exception having good coverage of water and sanitation issues, and serves as an illustration of good practice.

Despite their weaknesses, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers represent a huge step forward and we remain committed to focusing on helping partner governments implement them. PRS and the linked Medium Term Expenditure Framework sanitation sector. This financing supports fiscally sustainable strategies for the scaling up of reforms to acountry level.

Processes provide an opportunity to move to a programmatic approach, which will also help enhance and streamline financing of the water supply and sanitation sector. This financing supports fiscally sustainable strategies for the scaling up of reforms to a country level.

DFID are working with partner governments to strengthen PRSPs as they are revised (each three years). We advocate an integrated approach to environmental health to combat poverty and continue to push for the inclusion of sanitation, water supply and hygiene promotion measures into individual country PRSPs. In addition, through the Overseas Development Institute and WaterAid, we are supporting an in depth research and advocacy project which aims to address these issues in more detail.

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