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1 Mar 2006 : Column 702W—continued
Burma
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much financial support the British Government have given to (a) the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, (b) the Federation of Trade Unions—Burma, (c) the Democratic Voice of Burma, (d) the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners and (e) the National Council for the Union of Burma in each of the past three years. [52207]
Mr. Thomas: The British Government have not provided financial support to any of these five organisations during the past three years.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much of his Department's annual budget for Burma has been spent on consultants in each of the past three years; how much each consultant has received; and what projects each undertook. [52209]
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Mr. Thomas: DFID's annual budget for Burma was:
| Amount (£) | |
|---|---|
| 2002-03 | 7,020,000 |
| 2003-04 | 3,720,000 |
| 2004-05 | 6,007,000 |
Between 2002 and 2004, DFID issued three contracts to the Institute for Health Sector Development to co-ordinate an HIV/AIDS national response. Expenditure was as follows:
| Amount (£) | ||
|---|---|---|
| a. | 2002-03 | 71,943 |
| b. | 2003-04 | 110,763 |
| c. | 2004-05 | Nil |
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment the Government has made of whether the European Commission is abiding by the EU common position on Burma regarding humanitarian assistance. [52211]
Mr. Thomas: The Government have made no formal assessment. DFID officials maintain a regular dialogue with the European Commission in their drawing up of programmes for assistance to Burma. The Commission is fully aware of the need for these to be consistent with the Common Position.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what discretionary aid budget is available to the British ambassador to Burma. [52212]
Mr. Thomas: The British ambassador to Burma has the management of a discretionary aid budget covered by the small grants scheme (SGS). The 2005-06 financial year budget is £110,000 and will be used to fund civil society organisations working on sectors such as health, education, income generation and water.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much the Government have spent on projects (a) promoting democracy and (b) supporting internally displaced people in Burma in the last five years. [52466]
Mr. Thomas: Support to increase prospects for a successful transition to a democratic society is one of the four objectives of DFID's country strategy for Burma and is core to all our work. While DFID does not fund projects which explicitly promote democracy, in all our programmes we constantly seek opportunities to strengthen local civil society, support poor people's participation in local decision making, build local accountability and transparency, address conflict and encourage discussion and debate, in order to increase the prospects for change.
DFID provides direct assistance to displaced people in Burma through support to ICRC's work with conflict affected populations. Since 2000 DFID has provided total funding of £2.3 million to ICRC (this also includes support for ICRC's prison visits). However, several
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other DFID funded projects, including through local NGOs, also include displaced populations among their recipients.
Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much the UK spent on supporting internally displaced people in Burma in 2004-05. [54446]
Mr. Thomas: It is not possible to specify how much DFID support to Burma was spent on internally displaced people during 2004-05. In the financial year 2004-05 DFID provided £0.5 million to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), of which approximately 80 per cent. is attributable to work with conflict-affected populations. In addition, several other projects funded by DFID which provide assistance through local-level NGOs (for example, on health care) include an indeterminate percentage of displaced people among their recipients.
Angola
Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether British non-governmental organisations are working in the province of Cabinda; and if he will make a statement. [53859]
Hilary Benn: To our knowledge there are no British non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the province of Cabinda.
DFID's programme in Angola does however work quite closely with a wide range of NGOs across the different elements of our programme. For example, in our humanitarian activities we are supporting Medecins Sans Frontieres to improve primary and secondary healthcare services in Bie and Uige provinces (£547,850). To promote peace and democracy we have provided £765,812 to the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) to educate citizens on their role in the electoral process. We fund the Luanda Urban Poverty Programme (LUPP), a coalition of local and international NGOs which works to reduce urban poverty (£8.9 million). On HIV and AIDS, we support programmes to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS, offer voluntary counselling and testing, and market condoms through the BBC World Service Trust, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Population Services International and GOAL (over £2.5 million). To ensure continued peace and stability in Angola we also support a number of peacebuilding projects through Christian Aid, the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) and the Centre for Common Ground, totalling over £2 million.
Mine action is still required in Angola and we currently support projects in partnership with Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and the HALO Trust. We are providing MAG with £1 million over the period 2005–07 for road and bridge demining in Mexico province and HALO Trust with £400,000 in 2005–06 for road clearance in Cuando Cubango province. Angola will remain a focus country for DFID mine action funding for the foreseeable future. We are working to strengthen Angolan Disabled People's Organisations through World Vision (£274,705).
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NGOs have a vital role to play in the lead up to the elections planned for September 2006 and afterwards, both in terms of democratic development and in supporting the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether UK (a) multilateral and (b) bilateral aid is spent in the province of Cabinda; and if he will make a statement. [53860]
Hilary Benn: UNICEF and the World Health Organisation both work in Cabinda. DFID supports this through our core contributions. As core resources are unearmarked it is not possible to assess the extent to which this expenditure can be attributed to DFID. No other multilateral, including the European Commission and the World Bank have programmes in Cabinda.
There is bilateral expenditure in Cabinda, through two channels. DFID provides additional bilateral support to UNICEF, which works in all 18 of Angola's provinces including Cabinda (over £4 million in the past three years). In 2005 UNICEF spent a total of $20 million in Angola, just over US$1 million was in Cabinda province, supporting education, health, and water and sanitation programmes. In addition DFID, together with the FCO and the MOD, is supporting peace building in Cabinda using funds from the Africa Conflict Prevention Pool (£40,000 this year). Young people representing civil society organisations in Cabinda are being given the opportunity to do work placements with human rights, democratisation or peace building organisations in South Africa. The intention is that the expertise obtained in these important areas will be reinvested in peace building efforts in Cabinda.
Climate Change
Mark Lazarowicz: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps he is taking to ensure that his policies contribute to international efforts to tackle climate change. [53969]
Mr. Thomas: DFID takes the issue of climate change very seriously, not least because developing countries will be worst affected by it. We are helping developing countries collect data on the range and type of climate-related changes that are likely to take place in coming years. We are helping developing country planners to interpret that data, so that they can make informed decisions about how best to respond.
We are also working with others, in particular the World Bank and other multilateral development banks, to increase investment in lower carbon energy, so that we can make progress towards reducing the greenhouse gas emissions.
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