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28 Feb 2005 : Column 943W—continued
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the principal lessons learned by his Department on reconstruction and development during the reconstruction period in Bosnia-Herzegovina were. [218048]
Hilary Benn: DFID, MOD, the FCO and the Cabinet Office are setting up the 'Post Conflict Reconstruction Unit' to do more to improve the United Kingdom's capacity to deal with post conflict stabilisation. The experience of reconstruction and development in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the reconstruction phase, while not recorded formally, did highlight a number of lessons that the new unit will consider as well as lessons identified from other post conflict stabilisation and reconstruction scenarios where HMG has been involved. It is hoped to link this process to the US Office of the Co-ordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilisation and draw from the UN Lessons Learned Unit.
Emergency Aid
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much in the aid budget for 2004–05 is set aside for dealing with emergency situations; where the money has been pledged; and if he will make a statement. [218824]
Hilary Benn: DFID sets aside a sum of money each year to a central Contingency Reserve to enable the UK to respond to both humanitarian emergencies and reconstruction needs. In 2004–05 this amounted to £30 million. DFID also had a humanitarian assistance contingency budget of £49 million in 2004–05, of which about £12 million was allocated to provide emergency relief.
The Government's immediate humanitarian response to the Asia tsunami relief effort included committing the full Contingency Reserve of £30 million as well as £20 million from the humanitarian response budget.
The UK has provided over £6 million in non-tsunami emergency funding in 2004–05. A breakdown of the recipients is as follows:
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In addition, humanitarian assistance is provided through a number of our country programmes. The bulk of this is within Africa; and in 2004–05 this provision amounted to an earmarking within country budgets of approximately £110 million. An Africa regional humanitarian budget of £37 million was used to meet unexpected humanitarian needs. The country budgets allocations have also been varied within year depending on circumstances. The following table sets out the initial humanitarian allocations, by country, for 2004–05:
In other regions, we did not set aside separate budgets for emergency and humanitarian work. However assistance has been provided in, for example, Iraq and Afghanistan.
HIV/AIDS
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what financial assistance his Department has provided in each of the past five years to voluntary organisations working to prevent HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. [218244]
Hilary Benn [holding answer 25 February 2005]: This information is not available from our statistics. DFID tends to support integrated HIV/AIDS programmes and it is therefore difficult to break down support for HIV/AIDS prevention as distinct from treatment and care activities. Also, our support to voluntary organisations takes three forms (direct support to UK-based organisations through our Civil Society Challenge Fund, direct support to local organisations through our country programmes and Partnership Programme Agreements) only the first of which can be readily disaggregated in the way requested.
We support 18 major UK voluntary organisations through Partnership Programme Agreements. These are strategic level agreements based on shared aims and specific outcomes rather than individual project activities. It is therefore not possible for us to apportion support to HIV/AIDS activities. However the majority
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of these organisations do have an agreed outcome specifically targeted at HIV/AIDS. The level of our support for Partnership Programme Agreements has increased from £47 million to £62.5 million over the past five years.
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) whether the Department's field offices will be producing detailed action plans in addition to the revised country assistance plans in those countries with large numbers of orphans and children made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS; [217557]
(2) what steps the UK Government are taking to ensure that the Department's field offices help to increase the capacity of ministries in developing countries responsible for protecting the rights and meeting the needs of orphans and children made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS. [217556]
Mr. Gareth Thomas: I refer the hon. Member to the responses I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton, North, (Ms Keeble) on 10 February 2005, Official Report, columns 1638W and 1394W respectively (UIN 215342 and UIN 215343).
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps the Government are taking to ensure that the issue of orphans and children made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS is made a priority during the review of the European Union's Programme for Action on Poverty Diseases in 2005. [217559]
Mr. Gareth Thomas:
I refer the Member to the response I gave to the Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole, (Mrs. Brook), on 1 February 2005, Official Report, column 794W. (UIN 211156),
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Iraq
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what investigations the Government has undertaken on the possible involvement of UK (a) individuals and (b) companies in the mismanagement of Iraq reconstruction funds. [217903]
Hilary Benn: No investigations have been carried out by the Government on the possible involvement of UK individuals or companies in the mismanagement of Iraqi reconstruction funds.
The UK supported the establishment of the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB) —mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1483 of 22 May 2003—as an independent, objective body to oversee coalition management of Iraqi oil revenues and reconstruction spending.
The IAMB'S report on the two independent audits of coalition use of Iraqi funds in the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) states that
IAMB audit reports are available on the IAMB website at www.iamb.info.
Landmines
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps the Government is taking to eliminate the problem of landmines; and what funding was made available to countries affected by landmines in the last year for which figures are available. [218884]
Hilary Benn: The following table lists DFID's contributions to global mine action in financial year 2003–04.
In addition the UK share of European Community global mine action for the calendar year 2003 (the latest year for which we have figures), was £2.9 Million.
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