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28 Mar 2007 : Column 1527W—continued
Afghanistan: Overseas Aid
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the value is of humanitarian aid provided by his Department to Afghanistan in the 2006-07 financial year to date. [129490]
Hilary Benn: The UK has committed the following humanitarian aid to Afghanistan in this financial year to date: £1 million for drought mitigation; £1.2 million to support HALO Trust's de-mining programme; and £30,000 to provide food and other essential items like soap and blankets for 3,000 internally displaced families in Helmand.
Final expenditure data for 2006-07 are not yet available. Provisional data will be released in June, prior to final estimates being published in statistics on international development in October. Data for the five years to 2005-06 were published in table 12.3 of the latest edition of “Statistics on International Development 2001-02 to 2005-06”, copies of which are
available in the Library. The figure for humanitarian aid to Afghanistan in 2005-06 was £3.39 million.
Africa: Drugs
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps her Department is taking to limit the spread of counterfeit drugs and medicines in Africa. [129420]
Mr. Thomas: DFID supports the World Health Organisation (WHO), through its core funding, in its efforts to help African countries strengthen their pharmaceutical legislation, good manufacturing practices, national drug regulatory capacity and performance. The WHO also promotes information exchange among drug regulatory authorities to help combat drug counterfeiters.
The UK Government are working closely with developed and developing country governments, international institutions such as the World Health Organisation, non government organisations and the private sector to develop the Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA) to build support for transparency in medicines procurement and supply to help to drive out counterfeiting as well as corruption, excessive mark-ups and inefficiencies. We expect to launch MeTA in a number of pilot countries in mid 2007.
DFID has provided support to Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control which has taken an active lead in reducing counterfeit drugs throughout the country.
Africa: Family Planning
Chris McCafferty: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if the Government will take steps to encourage member states of the African Union to implement the Maputo plan of action on allocation of resources for sexual reproductive health services, maternal health care and contraception. [129594]
Hilary Benn: DFID fully supports the aims of the African Union Maputo plan of action on maternal health which is consistent with the DFID strategy ‘Reducing maternal deaths: evidence and action'. DFID will continue to work with and encourage partner governments to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services and commodities through DFID funded country programmes, and through regional and global advocacy.
At regional level, DFID works closely with the African Union Commission and other regional partners responsible for the Maputo plan and will continue to do so.
At country level, DFID will continue to work closely with national governments. In Nigeria, DFID has a £55 million programme of support for health system strengthening with a focus on maternal health. The programme works closely with state and federal health ministries and in Ekiti state this support has resulted in a 100 per cent. increase in the number of women who are cared for by a health professional during childbirth. In Burundi, DFID is supporting the Ministry of Health to implement a free health care
policy for pregnant women and children under five. In Sierra Leone DFID is developing a 10-year £50 million programme with the Ministries of Health and Finance specifically to improve sexual, reproductive and child health. In Zimbabwe DFID will invest £25 million pounds over five years to improve maternal and newborn health. The project will reduce the number of maternal deaths and reduce the number of children becoming infected or dying from HIV infection.
Chris McCafferty: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what progress his Department has made in encouraging partner governments to improve access to maternal health care and contraception services so as to reduce the levels of maternal mortality encountered in regions including sub-Saharan Africa. [129610]
Hilary Benn: As set out in DFID's strategy ‘Reducing maternal deaths: evidence and action’, DFID continues to work with partner governments to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services and commodities through DFID funded country programmes, and through regional and global advocacy. Increasingly DFID supports nationally led programmes for essential health services through budget support, as well as specific programmes for improving maternal and child health. For example, in Malawi and Uganda DFID works with national partners to strengthen health services, particularly human resources for health, and is pressing for the expansion of evidence-based sexual and reproductive services.
While reducing maternal mortality remains a major challenge, progress is being made. In Nigeria, DFID has a £55 million programme of support for health system strengthening with a focus on maternal health. The programme works closely with state and federal health ministries. In Ekiti state this support has resulted in a 100 per cent. increase in the number of women who are cared for by a health professional during childbirth. In Kenya a regional safe motherhood programme supported overall health system strengthening and was used to argue for more support to maternal and child health within essential health services programme. In Burundi, DFID is supporting the Ministry of Health to implement a free health care policy for pregnant women and children under five. In Sierra Leone, DFID is developing a 10 year, £50 million programme with the Ministries of Health and Finance specifically to improve sexual, reproductive and child health. The programme will strengthen the health system as a whole and address human resources for health, supplies of commodities, policy planning and financing. It will also contribute towards reducing key social, cultural and economic barriers to accessing basic health services.
Bolivia: Floods
Mr. Blizzard: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what financial support he plans to allocate to deal with problems caused by floods in Bolivia. [130059]
Mr. Thomas:
The EC Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) is providing €1 million emergency funds for
flood victims in Bolivia. DFID contributes to this through its 18 per cent. share of the European Community’s external assistance programme. Beyond that, DFID’s Conflict, Humanitarian and Security Department’s assessment is that the urgent humanitarian needs have been met by other donors. In view of this, DFID does not plan to provide further direct financial support.
EC Grants and Loans
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development to which countries (a) the European Commission and (b) his Department has committed funds under European Development Fund 10. [125536]
Mr. Thomas: The 10(th) European Development Fund (EDF10) will provide €22.7 billion (£15.3 billion) for development, economic and trade co-operation for the period 2008 to 2013 to 79 countries in Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific. The UK contribution to EDF10 will be 14.82 per cent. EDF10 will become operational from 1 January 2008.
Countries eligible for EDF10 funding are as follows.
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo (Brazzaville)
Congo (Kinshasa)
Djibouti
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea Bissau
Ivory Coast
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
Sudan
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Cuba
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Grenada
Guyana
Haiti
Jamaica
St. Kitts and Nevis
St. Lucia
St. Vincent
Suriname
Trinidad and Tobago
Cook Islands
Federated States of Micronesia
Fiji
Kiribati
Marshall Islands
Nauru
Niue
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Timor-Leste
Tonga
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
Overseas Countries and Territories
Anguilla
Cayman Islands
Falkland Islands
South Georgia
South Sandwich Islands
Montserrat
Pitcairn
Saint Helena and dependencies
British Antarctic Territories
British Indian Ocean Territories
Turks and Caicos Islands
British Virgin Islands
Mayotte
New Caledonia
French Polynesia
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Southern and Antarctic Territories
Wallis and Futuna Islands
Aruba
Dutch Antilles (Curasao, Bonaire, Saint Maarten, Saint Eustache and Saba)
Greenland
Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much was allocated to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in each calendar year since 2002. [130233]
Mr. Thomas: DFID has allocated £359 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria from 2002 to 2007 as follows:
| Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria—DFID spend 2000- 06 | |
| £ million | |
DFID’s commitment of £100 million for 2007 is subject to performance.
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