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19 Nov 2003 : Column 945W—continued
Life Expectancy
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will make a statement on life expectancy in developing countries in (a) 1980, (b) 1990 and (c) 2000. [139641]
Hilary Benn: The figures for life expectancy in developing countries are as follows:
| Number | |
|---|---|
| 1980 | 60 |
| 1990 | 63 |
| 2001 | 64 |
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Life expectancy in developing countries is therefore improving steadily, but not dramatically. However, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is dramatically reducing life expectancy in the worst affected countries. By 2010, life expectancy in many African countries will fall to around 30 years of age, levels not seen since the end of the nineteenth century. The demographic impact outside Africa will be less severe but still significant.
Maternal Health
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many mothers (a) died and (b) suffered injury or disability through childbirth in each developing country in the last year for which figures are available. [139532]
Hilary Benn: Maternal mortality is difficult to measure. As a result, WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA have developed an approach to estimating maternal mortality that generates estimates for countries with no data and corrects available data for underreporting and misclassification. They estimate that there were 527,000 maternal deaths in the year 2000 in developing countries, where 99.6 per cent. of all maternal deaths occur. The latest country estimates for the year 2000 have been placed in the Libraries of the House under the title "Maternal Mortality Estimates in 2000". The number of maternal deaths is listed in the fourth column.
Measuring and classifying the numbers of women who suffer injury or disability as a result of pregnancy and childbirth is even more challenging. Estimates from WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA for 1995 suggest that 300 million women worldwide (including 25 per cent. of the developing world's adult women) suffer from ill health and disability as a result of complications of pregnancy. WHO is currently conducting a review of published and unpublished studies in an attempt to provide a comprehensive tabulation of available data on the prevalence and incidence of global maternal morbidity.
DFID is also working with partners to develop and use improved ways of measuring the extent of maternal mortality.
A copy of the report and latest estimates of maternal mortality developed by WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA is available at: http://www.who.int/reproductive-health/publications/maternal mortality 2000/maternal mortality 2000.pdf
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what proportion of births were assisted by skilled births assistants in sub-Saharan Africa in each of the last 10 years. [139619]
Hilary Benn: The proportion of women in Sub-Saharan Africa who gave birth with the assistance of a skilled health worker (the internationally agreed maternal mortality indicator) increased slightly from 40 per cent. in 1990 to 42 per cent. by 2000.
Annual figures for sub-Saharan Africa as a whole are not available.
More information and individual country data can be found by accessing UNICEF's statistical database at http://www.childinfo.org/index2.htm.
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Millennium Development Goals
Ms Drown: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether his Department estimates that Tanzania will achieve the millennium development goals. [138905]
Hilary Benn: Recent reports indicate that Tanzania has the potential to meet the millennium development goals on poverty, HIV/AIDS, and environmental resources. Progress has been disappointing on the maternal and child health goals. There is insufficient data to indicate progress on access to safe water, but there are encouraging signs of progress. In the past two years, there has been significant progress towards the education target, with hugely increased numbers of children entering the first grade of Primary School. The supportive environment in Tanzania is improving.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will list his estimated expenditure on pursuit of the millennium development goals in (a) 2001–02, (b) 2002–03, (c) 2003–04, (d) 2004–05 and (e) 2005–06. [139620]
Hilary Benn: DFID's aim is to eliminate poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals. With the exception of funds voted to DFID to fulfil its legal commitments to provide pensions to former expatriate colonial civil and public servants, we use all of our resources for eliminating poverty in poorer countries and for preventing and reducing conflict. The information in the table updates the figures published in DFID's Annual Report 2003, where a further breakdown is available:
| Eliminating poverty in poorer countries | Overseas superannuation | Total resource budget | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 outturn | 3,174 | 59 | 3,233 |
| 2002–03 outturn | 3,614 | 56 | 3,671 |
| 2003–04 plans | 3,756 | 60 | 3,816 |
| 2004–05 plans | 3,780 | 57 | 3,837 |
| 2005–06 plans | 4,533 | 54 | 4,587 |
Poverty
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will list the countries in which some people live on $1 per day or less. [139618]
Hilary Benn: A comprehensive list of such countries has not been published as for many there is insufficient information to make robust estimates. However most if not all low and middle income countries can be expected to have some people living on less than $1 a day. Where country estimates exist the details are set out in table 1.1 of the annual publication 'Statistics on International Development' a copy of which is in the House of Commons Library.
Primary Education
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what proportion of children in each developing country receive no education. [139534]
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Hilary Benn: The most recent Education For All Global Monitoring Report, published by UNESCO in November this year, estimated that 104 million children of primary school age were not enrolled in school in 2000, 96 per cent. in developing countries. Most of the out-of-school children are concentrated in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa and south and west Asia.
I have placed in the Library lists of the primary net enrolment ratio and the corresponding percentage of primary school-age children not enrolled in school in 2000. The list is called "Education Enrolment in Developing Countries, 2000", and has figures for each country where comparable data are available. The table shows that for developing countries as a whole, 17.9 per cent. of primary school-age children were not enrolled in school in 2000.
The Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2003–04, containing these data, is available at: http://www.efareport.unesco.org
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what percentage of primary age children enrolled in primary school in sub-Saharan Africa in each of the last 10 years. [139539]
Hilary Benn: Due to the difficulties of collecting reliable and comparable data consistently across the whole of sub-Saharan Africa there are not internationally agreed figures for primary school enrolment for each of the last 10 years. However the most recent Education For All Global Monitoring Report published by UNESCO in November this year has a comparison of the Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) for most countries in sub-Saharan Africa between 1990 and 2000.
These figures show that in sub-Saharan Africa enrolment has improved but only slightly. In 1990, 55 per cent. of primary school age children were enrolled; in 2000 58 per cent. were enrolled. Within these figures there is wide variation by regions—from 89 per cent. in South Africa to 30 per cent. in Niger in the year 2000.
The Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2003–04, containing these data, is available at http://www.efareport.unesco.org
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the ratio of girls to boys enrolled in primary school in sub-Saharan Africa was in 2003–04; and what it is expected to be in 2005–06. [139613]
Hilary Benn: Due to the difficulties of collecting reliable and comparable data consistently across the whole of sub-Saharan Africa the most recent internationally agreed figures for gender parity are for 2000. These are in the most recent Education For All Global Monitoring Report published by UNESCO in November this year.
In 2000, there were 88 girls to every 100 boys in primary school classrooms in sub-Saharan Africa. This figure is the number of children of any age enrolled in primary school (the gross enrolment ratio).
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There is no predicted ratio of boys to girls for 2005–06. However the Global Monitoring report estimates that of 128 countries for which data are available, 35 countries are not likely to meet the 2005 goal of gender parity in primary education. 19 of these are in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2003–04, containing this data, is available at http://www.efareport.unesco.org.
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