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Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much the Government has spent on aid projects in (a) Afghanistan and (b) Iraq in each of the last five years. [113346]

Hilary Benn: UK Bilateral Aid and the Imputed share of Multilateral Expenditure for Afghanistan and Iraq for each of the last five years for which data are available is set out in the following tables.

The full breakdown of Bilateral Aid is published in Table 12.3 of “Statistics on International Development 2001/02-2005/06”, a copy of which is available in the Library.

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Table 1: Total spending in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last five years
£000
	Development assistance( 1)	Humanitarian assistance	Total DFID bilateral programme	Aid from other UK official sources( 2)	Total bilateral gross public expenditure
Afghanistan
2001-02	53	49,943	49,996	31	50,027
2002-03	30,292	44,253	74,546	1,472	76,018
2003-04	69,225	10,457	79,683	19,912	99,595
2004-05	72,522	7,067	79,589	19,370	98,959
2005-06	95,040	3,390	98,430	28,519	126,949
Iraq( 3)
2001-02	—	7,760	7,760	—	7,760
2002-03	—	18,853	18,853	—	18,853
2003-04	99,261	110,052	209,313	5,000	214,313
2004-05	27,724	21,383	49,107	342,400	391,507
2005-06	82,105	4,764	86,869	339,380	426,249
(1) Includes financial aid, technical cooperation, grants and aid in kind, and total DFID debt relief. (2) Includes non-DFID debt relief, British Council, and the Global Conflict Pool. (3 )Recorded flows to Iraq before 2003-04 are humanitarian assistance provided through UN agencies and Civil Society Organisations for Iraqi citizens. No aid was provided to the Government of Iraq during that period. Source: Statistics on International Development 2001/02 - 2005/06.

Table 2 : Imputed multilateral shares for Afghanistan and Iraq
£ million
	EC	Other	UN	World Bank	Grand total
Afghanistan
2000	2.6	0.0	1.3	0.0	4.0
2001	5.4	0.0	1.3	0.0	6.7
2002	11.5	2.9	2.1	0.0	16.5
2003	14.3	3.0	1.4	0.0	18.7
2004	21.3	1.5	4.0	0.0	26.7
Iraq
2000	1.1	0.0	0.4	0.0	1.4
2001	1.3	0.0	0.4	0.0	1.8
2002	1.0	0.0	0.7	0.0	1.7
2003	4.2	0.0	1.1	0.0	5.3
2004	13.8	0.0	0.5	0.0	14.3

AIDS

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the impact of the outcome of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions talks with pharmaceutical companies on the availability of affordable HIV/AIDS treatments in (a) developing countries and (b) least developed countries. [108736]

Mr. Thomas: We welcome any serious attempt at getting AIDS drugs more accessible and affordable for those who need them. Partnerships between employers, unions and manufacturers are an integral part of what is needed to see progress in tackling HIV and AIDS in developing countries.

We have not made a detailed assessment of the impact of the outcome of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions talks with pharmaceutical companies on the availability of affordable HIV/AIDS treatments. We would certainly encourage the pharmaceutical sector to do all it can to make essential drugs more easily available and affordable to poor countries.

This is why in 2005, the Department for International Development (DFID) published a framework for good practice in the pharmaceutical industry to help increase access to essential medicines that treat diseases of poverty including HIV/AIDS in all developing countries. DFID continues to subscribe to the framework’s principles and welcomes all efforts to improve both access and affordability, including through differential pricing and negotiating agreements to lower the price of HIV/AIDS treatments. Our support to UNITAID, the new drug purchase facility, is helping to do this, most recently with the assistance of the Clinton Foundation.

We hope that it will be possible for both parties to reopen negotiations at some stage in the future, given the potential benefits overall. Trade Unions as well as companies play a vital role in efforts to tackle AIDS. Working with employees in large, small and medium sized companies, in the formal and informal sectors—and in the public and private sectors—Trade Unions can support the implementation of effective company work place policies. In turn this will ultimately reduce the impact of AIDS on employees and businesses.

BBC World Service Trust

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what projects have been launched by his Department in collaboration with the BBC World Service Trust since 2002. [113205]

Hilary Benn: Since 2002 DFID has launched 10 projects in collaboration with the BBC World Service Trust—the details are outlined in the chart as follows:

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Country	Project title	Start date	End date	Commitment (£)	Purpose
Afghanistan	Media Development	February 2002	May 2002	1,000,000	Humanitarian response to provide equipment, training to journalists and technicians, and to provide capacity for sustained media development.
Burma	“Mandalay Road”	January 2003	September 2006	1,998,000	A soap opera to raise awareness about health care including HIV/AIDS among population.
Cambodia	Strengthening Response to HIV/AIDS	January 2003	December 2007	3,300,000	Implementation of Government led mass media initiative around HIV/AIDS
Nigeria	DFID Nigeria / BBC World Service Partnership	June 2003	August 2007	5,466,000	Raise awareness among poor rural people to better governance, public services and livelihoods.
Iraq	‘Al Mirbad’	February 2004	March 2007	7,520,000	To establish an Iraqi managed broadcasting station for the four provinces of southern Iraq.
Bangladesh	BBC The State of Nation Debates	November 2005	December 2006	620,000	Broadcasting public debates on governance issues
Africa Regional	Africa Media Development Initiative (AMDI)	January 2006	January 2007	417,000	To support Africa media practitioners develop evidence based policy to allow the media to play a full role in Africa’s development—as recommended by the Commission for Africa
Sudan	Support to the BBC World Service Trust in Darfur	June 2006	November 2006	401,000	Promotion of Darfur Peace Agreement among population
Bangladesh	“Sanglap II”	September 2006	June 2007	665,000	Broadcasting public debates on governance issues
Global	Global Advocacy Campaign for ICD	November 2006	March 2011	2,500,000	To advocate the importance of Information and Communication for Development in supporting effective development to the international development assistance community

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