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24 July 2006 : Column 1007W—continued
Hilary Benn:
The African Union mission in Darfur (AMIS) co-ordinates firewood patrols to provide
protection for women when they leave camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs). Where this is happening the number of reported rapes has decreased significantly, and we are encouraging the African Union (AU) to promote this practice. AMIS also has civilian police presence in many IDP camps and we are urging AMIS within its resources to prioritise the civilian protection elements of its mandate.
We have made, and continue to make clear, to the Government of Sudan that more must be done to provide security for the citizens of Darfur, and that perpetrators of such crimes must be brought to justice. In late December 2005, the UK participated in a mission to assess human rights in West Darfur consisting of representatives of the Government of Sudan, the UN and international community. The mission paid specific attention to gender based violence, and produced a number of recommendations. We are pressing the Government of Sudan to implement these recommendations as a matter of urgency. Transfer to a UN mission in Darfur, which the UK supports, would also help deal with the problems.
Technical Assistance
Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what funding his Department (a) has allocated in each of the last three financial years and (b) plans to allocate in each of the next three financial years to technical assistance. [84138]
Hilary Benn: Technical assistance is the provision of know-how in the form of personnel, training, research and associated costs.
| Expenditure on technical assistance for last three years is as follows: | ||||||
| £000 | ||||||
| Category of Technical Assistance (TA) | 2002-03 | As percentage of total TA | 2003-04 | As percentage of total TA | 2004-05 | As percentage of total TA |
The final statistics for 2005-06 will be published in “Statistics on International Development 2006” in October 2006.
Future plans for DFID spending are set out in Annex 1, Table 4 of DFID’s latest Departmental Report, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House. We do not set planning figures for Technical Assistance.
Treaty of Amsterdam
Mr. Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will place in the Library a copy of the deliberations of the Treaty of Amsterdam Article 133 Committee since 1997. [79788]
Mr. McCartney: I have been asked to reply.
There are no formal minutes of the meetings of the Article 133 Committee. However the Secretariat of the Council of the European Union produces “outcomes of proceedings” from Article 133 Committee meetings and these are accessible in accordance with Council Regulation 1049/2001 (Regulation of the European Parliament and Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents) through the Council’s website at http://ue.eu.int.
UN Central Emergency Response Fund
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much funding has been pledged to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund for 2007 by (a) the UK, (b) the EU and (c) G8 countries. [87467]
Hilary Benn: The UK has disbursed £40 million to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for year 2006. The UK has pledged a further £40 million per annum for the next three years (ie in total the UK will provide £160 million over four years).
The European Commission has made no commitments to the CERF. A number of European Union member states have made commitments for 2006. They are: UK £40 million/$70 million, Sweden $41 million, Netherlands $24 million, Ireland $12 million, Spain $10 million, Denmark $8.5 million, Finland $4.7 million, Luxembourg $4 million, France $1.2 million, Belgium $1.2 million, Portugal $254,000, Poland $250,000, Greece $100,000, Estonia $24,000, and Slovenia $10,000. The UK is the only EU member state to have announced commitments beyond the current year.
Five G8 countries have made commitments to the CERF. For this year the commitments are: UK £40 million/$70 million, Canada $17 million, Japan $7.5 million, France $1.2 million. The US has committed $5 million for fiscal year 2006 and $5 million for fiscal year 2007. The UK is the only other G8 country to have announced commitments beyond the current year.
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent discussions he has had with his G8 counterparts on their (a) current and (b) planned contributions to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund. [87468]
Hilary Benn: During the development of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), my officials and I had discussions with various G8 countries at bilateral and international meetings and by telephone. Five G8 members—UK, Canada, US, Japan and France have committed funds to the CERF and I continue to encourage other countries to contribute.
At the launch of DFID’s Humanitarian Policy at the British Red Cross Headquarters on 7 June, I announced future UK funding commitments to the CERF. On top of the £40 million provided this year, I have pledged a further £40 million per annum for the next three years (i.e. in total the UK will provide £160 million over four years). I hope this will encourage others to commit future funding, and I will raise this issue with other G8 countries at appropriate opportunities.
Water
Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what his Department's policy is on (a) the provision of piped water connections to provide water to the urban poor and (b) other forms of water provision; and if he will make a statement. [85801]
Hilary Benn
[holding answer 19 July 2006]: DFID helps developing country governments to implement their own plans for provision of water and sanitation, which include both piped and public or communal provision to safe water, as appropriate. DFID provides direct financing and technical know-how. We also support the international system, particularly the UN
to gather data on access to safe water and basic sanitation. In most countries, access to water and sanitation is better in urban areas than it is in rural. Access to water may be through house connections or through public connections close to the home.
The urban population in Africa will increase from 300 million to 500 million between 2000 and 2015 and in Asia from 1.35 billion to 2 billion. This rapid growth in urban populations will pose severe problems to our partner governments including that of increasing access to water and sanitation. DFID has urban water and sanitation projects in Ghana, Nigeria, India and Bangladesh and our International Division supports the Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor to deliver sustainable water and sanitation to low-income urban and peri-urban communities. DFID is committed to doubling spending on water in Africa to £95 million by 2008 and a further doubling to £200 million by 2011. We are now actively involved in seven African countries (Ethiopia, the DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia), up from only two years ago; and through our funding of other agencies’ programmes, we reach many other countries. For example the EU plans to provide 10 million people with access to water and a further 5 million to sanitation by 2010 through projects it has recently approved through the Water Facility.
Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much his Department has spent on assistance on water provision in cities in the developing world since 1997. [85803]
Hilary Benn [holding answer 19 July 2006]: DFID commissioned an independent report on its expenditure on water and sanitation in the developing world. This report, “Financial Support to the Water Sector”, was produced by Atkins Consultants and is publicly available at http://www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/water-sector-finance.pdf. Copies have also been placed in the Libraries of both Houses, in response to previous related parliamentary questions.
The report presents a breakdown of expenditure by region, country and theme. In 2001-02, the first year for which an urban/rural breakdown is available, £35.8 million of DFID’s bilateral water expenditure was spent on ‘Urban water supply and sanitation’. In subsequent years there was a shift to rural activities. Bilateral urban water and sanitation expenditure was £29 million in 2003-04. A proportion of DFID’s contributions to multilateral, civil society organisations and Poverty Reduction Budget Support will also be spent on water provision in developing world cities, but it is not possible to break this expenditure down by theme.
An update of the report, with details of expenditure for 2004-05 and 2005-06 will be published in autumn 2006.
Women's Rights
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what programmes are funded by his Department on (a) women’s rights, (b) equality issues and (c) domestic violence prevention in (i) Iraq and (ii) Afghanistan. [86481]
Hilary Benn: DFID currently has two programmes supporting civil society in Iraq in promoting women’s rights and equality issues, among other aspects.
Our £5 million Civil Society Fund supports international (mainly UK) Non Governmental Organisations to work with Iraqi counterparts. As part of this we are working with Women for Women International in Iraq to build women’s leadership capacity, awareness of rights and the capacity to transfer knowledge and skills to the community more broadly. The Civil Society Fund also provides funding for the Women’s National Commission’s Internship project, which is working with women to engage with the Iraqi Government, by contributing to better and more inclusive, policies affecting women.
Our £7.5 million Political Participation Fund works directly with a range of Iraqi civil society organisations to help them engage in the political process and has supported a number of Iraqi women’s groups in improving the political awareness and participation of women in Iraq’s constitutional processes, including its recent elections.
We have not funded specific projects in Iraq on domestic violence prevention.
DFID supports the role of women in all aspects of Afghan society. The strategy we are working towards is the Interim Afghan National Development Strategy (I-ANDS).
The I-ANDS recognises gender as a key cross cutting theme. Development of the full ANDS will ensure that these important issues are adequately addressed across the board. DFID are also funding the Government’s National Programmes which include support to enhancing the role of women at community level. For example, the National Solidarity Programme ensures that women are engaged in determining community development priorities through the formation of Community Development Councils. We also support the Micro-finance Investment Support Facility of Afghanistan (MISFA), currently working in 18 provinces and plans to be active in all 34 by end of 2007. 80 per cent. of MISFA’s beneficiaries are women.
DFID supports equal rights for all the citizens of Afghanistan. At the national level we provided support to the drafting of the new constitution, which has successfully protected the rights of women and minority ethnic groups before the law. DFID provided significant funding for the Presidential and Parliamentary elections which have been a milestone for Afghanistan. A wide choice of candidates existed from a variety of ethnic, social and political backgrounds. A high number of women also registered as candidates and participated as voters (43 per cent. of voters were women).
DFID has not funded specific projects that target domestic violence in Afghanistan. However the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), through the Global Opportunities Fund is sponsoring a number of projects specifically designed to increase women’s access to justice, improve their living standards, promote women’s equal participation in governance, create a professional network of women’s rights organisations and promote access to information through the radio.
Trade and Industry
Advertising Campaigns
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what advertising campaigns the Department has run between 2000 and June 2004; and what the (a) date and (b) cost was of each. [87055]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Expenditure on advertising by the Department procured through Central Office of Information (COI) for 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04, was £9.4 million, £6.1 million, £1l.5 million, £4.1 million. Figures exclude VAT. The following table contains details. The Department does not hold information on other campaigns centrally, including those by non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs), and to do so would entail disproportionate cost. In addition to provide information against each entry on the intended audience and purpose of the campaign, would again entail disproportionate costs.
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