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Written Answers to Questions
Wednesday 15 March 2006
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Africa
Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate he has made of the number of pupils enrolled in unregistered private schools in Africa. [58039]
Hilary Benn: We are not in a position to make valid estimates about the numbers of pupils enrolled in un-registered private schools in Africa. Partner Governments do not have statistics about such establishments because they do not feature in national data collection.
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) what assessment he has made of the extent to which drought in Africa is caused by climate change; [57456]
(2) what assessment he has made of steps which can be taken to reduce the effects of drought in Africa. [57453]
Hilary Benn: DFID attaches great importance to helping developing countries adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. DFID is a leading supporter of international and national efforts to assess and reduce the impact of climate change efforts to eradicate poverty.
Work to assess the potential impact of climate change on the incidence and intensity of droughts in Africa is in its early stages. We are helping African planners develop their national climate change adaptation strategies through three means: (a) provision of funds through the United Nations to help Africa adapt, including £10 million over three years (2005–06 to 2007–88) to the United Nations Climate Change Convention's Special Climate Change Fund; (b) helping to improve African climate monitoring networks and develop African regional climate centres through the G8 Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) initiative and (c) DFID's climate change research strategy.
During 2005, the UK also led the G8 to commit to improving the way we manage climate risk when providing development assistance. The UK aims to have climate risk management procedures for overseas aid in place by 2008, in line with the Commission for Africa recommendation. We are working with the World Bank and other donors to progress this.
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what his estimate is of the number of people in Africa affected by drought in each of the last five years. [57457]
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Hilary Benn: We do not have precise figures for the last five years as these records are not held centrally, but estimate that around 30 million people experience food shortages every year in Africa. In many cases these shortages are associated with drought.
Chad
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what representations he has received on aid for Sudanese refugees in Chad; and if he will make a statement. [57730]
Hilary Benn: DFID is in regular contact with the UN and humanitarian agencies providing assistance to the Sudanese refugees in Eastern Chad, we will continue to closely monitor the humanitarian situation.
The UK provided a total of £5 million for humanitarian support in Eastern Chad and, in line with the reduced request in the UN appeal, will provide £4 million in 2006.
Colombia
Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assistance his Department is providing to displaced people in Colombia; and if he will make a statement. [58040]
Mr. Thomas: DFID provides assistance to displaced people in Colombia through its 18 per cent. contribution to the European Commission's development assistance programme. The EC's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) made a commitment of €8.6 million to Colombia in 2003 through its Global Plan 2003, for Internally Displaced People and people affected by internal conflict in Colombia. The ECHO committed a further €8 million of humanitarian assistance for 2004 and €12 million in 2005. Additionally the EC is providing €105 million over the period 2001–06 to support alternative development, good governance and human rights projects in Colombia.
Departmental Expenditure
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the running costs were of his Department's offices in (a) Pretoria, (b) Brasilia, (c) Bangkok, (d) Montserrat, (e) Paris and (f) Rome in 2004–05. [58243]
Mr. Thomas: The running costs of DFID's offices in Pretoria, Brasilia, Bangkok, Montserrat, Paris and Rome in 2004–05 were as follows:
Running costs include (but are not limited to) staff pay and other personnel overheads, office accommodation rental and maintenance, staff training,
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post, telecommunications and travel costs. DFID's office in Pretoria is the base for DFID Southern Africa and its budget includes running costs for Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland. DFID's office in Bangkok is the base for DFID South East Asia which covers Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, East Timor and Burma, as well as Thailand. However, in this case expenditure only includes running costs for the Bangkok office.
Dominican Republic (HIV/AIDS)
Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will make a statement on the availability of anti-retrovirals and other treatment for those with HIV/AIDS in the Dominican Republic, with particular reference to Dominicans of Haitian descent. [57925]
Hilary Benn: The 2002 census in the Dominican Republic records that only 80,000 people identified themselves as being born outside of the country. However, Amnesty International estimates that there are between 700,000 and 800,000 people of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic, out of a total population of 8.56 million. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimate that the prevalence of HIV infection is below 2 per cent. nationally but this figure is up to 5 per cent. in the bateyes (local communities) living near sugar plantations, where a significant proportion of immigrants of Haitian descent live.
While the Presidential AIDS Council (COPRESIDA) made significant progress towards universal access to prevention, treatment and care in the last three years, and has a policy of universal provision of anti-retroviral treatment (ARV), there is no specific policy of providing ARVs to non-nationals. The total number of people living with HIV and AIDS, who require ARV treatment, is not known. At January 2006, some 2,700 patients were receiving ARVs, likely to be substantially less than 50 per cent. of those in need of treatment.
Amnesty International is planning to issue a report on HIV and human rights in the Dominican Republic in May. It is expected to find that the treatment, care and prevention services for HIV and AIDS in the bateyes, where many Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent live, is very limited.
Latin America
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) how his Department is working with local communities in Latin America on the (a) aims, (b) design, (c) implementation and (d) evaluation of development projects; [58031]
(2) what steps his Department is taking to strengthen civil society in Latin America through co-operation with local communities. [58032]
Mr. Thomas:
The Department for International Development (DFID) supports local communities in Latin America through its work with the International Finance Institutions (IFI), particularly the World Bank and the Inter American Development Bank (IADB), and through direct support to non-governmental
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organisations (NGO)s. The range of community involvement in IFI supported and civil society programmes is illustrated by the following examples.
Through engagement with the IADB and the World Bank, DFID is supporting greater involvement of civil society and local communities in IFI programmes and processes, such as consultations around development and evaluation of IFI country strategies. In Brazil, the UK is helping local communities give their own assessment of the impact of the Federal Government's conditional cash transfer programme, the Bolsa Familia. This programme provides a monthly cash benefit to a current total of 8.7 million poor families across the country, which is conditional on children attending school and immunisation programmes. The UK is also contributing to a programme to enhance the capacity of indigenous people's organisations throughout Amazonia. Indigenous leaders meet regularly, receive training together, and consider how to promote their entitlements to services and to strengthen social cohesion in Amazon communities.
DFID supports the IADB to promote community participation in the design and implementation of its programmes in Central America. For example, support was recently provided to local communities in the remote cross-border area between Honduras (El Paraiso) and Nicaragua (Nueva Segovia) to strengthen cross-border development plans.
With civil society in Brazil, the UK is working with local communities to raise awareness of how institutional racism can be a barrier to poor people in the Afro-Brazilian population receiving the public services to which they are entitled. This work has been implemented through new partnerships between municipal authorities and civil society organisations in two states in the poor North East of Brazil, Pernambuco and Bahia, through the Programme to Combat Institutionalised Racism.
In the Andes region, DFID is working to strengthen awareness among civil society and community groups of their right to information about policy processes and to engage with policy makers, both within Government and donors. In Peru, DFID's rights-based approach to development put working with local communities central to its purpose. The substantial partnership between Oxfam and DFID through the Derechos, Inclusion y Desarrollo (Rights, Inclusion and Development) programme has taken DFID's support on these issues right down to the community level.
In Nicaragua, DFID contributes to the multi-donor civil society fund in Nicaragua administered by the local in-country offices of Oxfam Great Britain and Trocaire. This fund is designed to provide direct grants to local grassroots civil society to help them build governance from the bottom up and engage in development planning processes as well as social auditing of Government development programmes. DFID has supported the IADB to strengthen civil society through co-operation with local communities.
DFID also provides direct support to civil society in Latin America through Partnership Programme Arrangements with six international NGOs and
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through the Civil Society Challenge Fund. Many of the activities supported through these channels would involve local communities.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how his Department sets development strategies to target (a) poverty and (b) inequality in Latin America. [58033]
Mr. Thomas: Latin America has high levels of persistent and severe poverty and inequality. According to 2004 national poverty line data collected by the United Nations, 42.9 per cent. of the population of Latin America live in poverty and 18.6 per cent. live in extreme poverty. The levels of extreme poverty are higher among indigenous and afro-descendant people.
DFID's strategy for Middle Income Countries (MIC) provides the framework for how DFID works to reduce poverty and inequality in Latin America. DFID's main financial contributions to Latin America are through direct contributions to the multilateral institutions (the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations). As recommended by the MICs Strategy, DFID uses its bilateral programme (£11 million in 2005–06 and £12 million in 2006–07) for Latin America to maximise the effectiveness of our multilateral contribution by working to enhance the overall impact of the international system in the region. DFID's assistance to Latin America from 2004–07 is set out in the Regional Assistance Plan, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House.
DFID is working with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the World Bank to strengthen their focus and impact on poverty, inequality and exclusion. DFID assistance to the IADB and the World Bank aims to strengthen the access of poor and excluded people to local and national markets, to the benefits of international trade, and to accountable and more responsive public systems. A recent example of support to the IADB was in the development of an indigenous people's strategy, which sets out how the World Bank should assess the impact of new programmes and loans on indigenous people.
DFID is working to improve the ability of Governments to develop and monitor poverty reduction strategies and the extent to which donor assistance is consistent with these strategies by promoting and exchanging regional lesson learning. DFID is also facilitating lesson sharing on global policy issues including trade, HIV and AIDS and global environmental issues.
DFID also is providing over £10 million in 2005–06 to British non-governmental organisations (NGO)s in the region by funding projects through its Civil Society Challenge Fund and through its Partnership Programme Agreements with six international NGOs.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) what assessment he has made of the role of microfinance in the development of poor Latin American communities; and if he will make a statement; [58029]
(2) what proportion of his Department's budget to support microfinance projects went to Latin America in the last period for which figures are available; [58030]
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(3) what microfinance organisations his Department supports in Latin America; [58034]
(4) which 20 non-governmental organisations working in Latin America received the highest amount of grant from his Department for microfinance or microcredit projects in each year since 1997. [58036]
Mr. Thomas: Lack of access to affordable credit is a persistent constraint to livelihoods of the poor in Latin America. For both formal and informal small scale enterprises, which are the main employers of the poor in urban and rural areas, limited forms of formal collateral exclude them from access to borrowing from the formal financial sector. Microfinance institutions have an important role to play in meeting this gap for small enterprises and producers. However, microfinance institutions can also have high transaction and operation costs and frequently rely on external, often donor, financing.
Many donors, including the International Financial Institutions, are working on instruments that will guarantee loans to the poor, as well institutional models that will enable larger financial institutions to extend financial services to poorer communities and small enterprises. In the meantime, microfinance institutions continue to play a crucial role in meeting the demands of the poor for financial services tailored to their particular needs.
If microfinance remains reliant on donor grants, it will always be limited and not reach the scale possible through involvement of the private sector. By combining the strengths of microfinance non-governmental organisations (NGO)s (microfinance expertise, community presence, commitment to serving very poor people) and those of banks (financial resources, information technology, payment systems), massive increases can be made in providing microfinance to the poor. The experience of ICICI Bank in India, the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and Bancosol in Bolivia clearly demonstrate this. ProFund Internacional (ProFund), based in Costa Rica, targets the small and microenterprises (SMEs) of Latin America and the Caribbean. Major shareholders of ProFund include the InterAmerican Development Bank, IFC/The World Bank Group and CDC.
Globally, DFID has supported microfinance and financial sector projects in 25 countries. In Latin America, DFID is working closely with partner governments to improve the institutional framework within which microfinance institutions operate. DFID's Regional Assistance Plan for Latin America aims to improve the impact of International Finance Institutions (particularly the World Bank and Inter American Development Bank (IADB) on poverty and inequality. This includes working with the IADB and the World Bank to strengthen the access of poor and excluded people to local and national markets, including access to micro-credit. In Nicaragua, DFID is providing $150,000 to an International Finance Corporation initiative to support the microfinance industry to develop new products and lending models specifically targeted at the small enterprise sector. In Bolivia, DFID is in dialogue with the new Government
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on the institutional structure for microfinance, informed by an analysis of models for credit services to poor rural producers.
Microfinance has often tended to be a component of wider DFID projects. For example, the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) Alternative Development project in the Lower Huallaga Valley, Peru (completed in 2004), which worked with farmers to increase their incomes from alternative livelihoods and avoid a reactivation of the illegal cultivation of coca. A similar project in San Martin region of Peru included microfinance and supported small-scale production, agro-processing and environmental education to improve incomes and employment of poor producers.
DFID's fund allocations are determined by country and region rather than by sector. The overall budget for microfinance and the proportion allocated for Latin America is therefore not readily available.
DFID has Partnership Programme Arrangements (PPAs) with six international NGOs for their programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean. While these PPAs cover a wide range of work, it is expected that the following would include microfinance elements; CARE, CAFOD, Christian Aid and Oxfam.
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