Campaign responses

January 2011

Thank you for your postcard asking for support for indigenous pregnant women and mothers.

Improving maternal health and women’s rights are major priorities for the Coalition Government and an area that the Prime Minister has personally championed. We are determined to take action to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services, including access to modern family planning methods, to give women in developing countries the reproductive choices they want and need. Our Business Plan, published in November, sets out actions to increase access to healthcare, clean water and sanitation, to reduce maternal and infant mortality, and to restrict the spread of diseases like malaria.

The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Summit in September 2010 was an opportunity for the world to renew its commitments to the world’s poor. The Summit successfully agreed an action agenda for how the international community and developing countries can achieve the MDGs. Unprecedented pledges were made by donors (amounting to £40 billion) and many developing countries made commitments to increase access to family planning and safe births.

A “Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health”, launched at the Summit in September, emphasises the importance of reducing barriers to access, including expanding free services for women and children. 

This is particularly important for the poorest and most marginalised women in the developing world, including those from indigenous communities.

The Coalition Government is committed to putting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls at the front and centre in international development.  We recognise that indigenous peoples can be denied rights, for example through language and geographical location, which is why we support programmes which seek to strengthen the rights, voice and political representation and participation of excluded groups.

Choices for women: Planned pregnancies, safe births and healthy newborns, the UK's new Framework for Results for Improving Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health was released on 31 December 2010.  Ultimately, the Coalition Government will judge the success of this Framework by whether the poorest are reached in the countries where we work. Disaggregated data, that track changes in the lives of poor and marginalised groups, are important.

Stigma and discrimination – due to poverty, ethnic group, age, marital status, disability, sexuality, HIV status and other factors – exclude women and girls from services. This is often overlooked, yet significantly affects the quality of care. The health system reflects the society in which it operates but could be a model for equity and social change. Approaches to overcome stigma and discrimination include: training of health workers; tailored services; accountability mechanisms and quality assurance; behaviour change communications strategies; and community engagement.

I hope this is helpful.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

January 2011

Thank you for your email in support of the Stop AIDS campaign to help stop babies being born with HIV, urging the Government to contribute its fair share to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. I agree that it is vital we sustain the substantial but fragile progress the world is making in tackling AIDS, especially in the worst affected countries.

The Coalition Government wholeheartedly supports the call for the elimination of paediatric AIDS and we are working with others to scale up services to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child. To reach this goal, we need to adopt the comprehensive approach recommended by the World Health Organization. We can add particular value in the area of primary prevention of HIV among women of child-bearing age, and on prevention of unintended pregnancies among women living with HIV through our investments in family planning.

In 2007, the UK made an unprecedented long term commitment to the Global Fund of up to £1 billion, comprising up to £360 million for the period 2008-10 and up to £640 million over 2011-15, subject to high quality demand, sustainable impact and good performance.

The Department for International Development is undertaking a Multilateral Aid Review (MAR) to examine our support for multilateral agencies. We are also reviewing our bilateral aid and humanitarian emergency response programmes. The MAR includes an assessment of the relevance of the Global Fund to the UK’s objectives on poverty reduction and its ability to deliver results on the ground. The results of the MAR will be an important element in any future funding decisions in respect of the Fund.

The Executive Board of the Global Fund met in December to consider country proposals for additional financing under ‘Round 10’ of funding applications. The results of the MAR will be announced in the spring. I am pleased to say that we are sufficiently confident in the Fund’s performance to be able to bring forward £100 million of our remaining £640 million pledge into 2010, so that all the proposals on the table could be supported in full. This has helped to allow good quality proposals to be approved more quickly, and will enable life saving treatments and services to reach more patients faster.

The Global Fund Replenishment Conference in October raised a total of $11.7 billion in formal pledges and projections. This is the largest ever financial commitment to the Fund’s work, and represents a 20% increase on the last Replenishment which raised $9.7 billion for 2008-2010. This is a very significant achievement given the current economic climate. It does mean that the Fund will need to become even more efficient, driving costs down and increasing effectiveness so that every single dollar raised maximises the health results that it buys.

I can assure you that we believe the global financial crisis is no excuse for turning our backs on AIDS and other pressing health needs, as demonstrated by our commitment to spend 0.7% of Gross National Income on overseas aid from 2013.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

December 2010

Earlier this year, WOMANKIND Worldwide’s Speaking out for Women campaign was successful in securing signatures from people in 80% of the UK’s constituencies.  WOMANKIND Worldwide recently delivered the numerous signed postcards to my office, including the postcard you signed.  I wanted to thank you for your commitment to improving the lives of girls and women in the poorest countries. 

The Department for International Development is committed to promoting gender equality and putting girls and women at the front and centre of our policies and our operational work around the world. 

We have identified gender equality and the role of girls and women as one of our six strategic priorities in the DFID Business Plan.  We will continue to work to improve maternal health and access to family planning; increase the number of girls completing primary and progressing to secondary school; promote the economic empowerment of girls and women; and tackle violence against girls and women.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

December 2010

I would like to commend the ONE campaign's efforts to reach the goal of virtual elimination of paediatric AIDS; the UK Coalition Government wholeheartedly supports this.

It is unacceptable that more than 1,000 babies acquire HIV through mother-to-child transmission every day when there are effective interventions to prevent this.  The Department for International Development is working with others to scale up prevention of mother to child transmission services.

To reach this goal, we need to adopt the comprehensive approach recommended by the World Health Organization. This includes better integration of HIV services into maternal and child health, reducing infections among women and girls, addressing the structural drivers of the epidemic (stigma and discrimination, gender based violence) and supporting access to essential medicines for women and children, including anti-retroviral drugs.

Making choices through family planning is a key element of the package, but many women do not have access to modern methods of contraception and cannot choose whether, when and how many children to have, let alone choose to do this safely. The unmet need for family planning among HIV positive women is higher than among HIV negative women.  The UK Government has put women and children at the heart of the Coalition's development agenda and we expect to make a significant contribution to the goal of eliminating paediatric AIDS particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where most paediatric infections occur, through improvements in maternal and child health services and investments in family planning.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

December 2010

Thank you for your support for Tearfund’s recent ‘Superbadger’ campaign on clean water and sanitation, and the impact that access to these will have on saving the lives of mothers and babies. I agree with you that it is essential that the importance of water and sanitation is not overlooked.

The Coalition Government will launch the new Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health (RMNH) Framework for Results shortly.  As part of the preparation of the Framework we undertook an extensive consultation process, which ran for twelve weeks until 20 October, and was available on Department for International Development’s website.

Central to the Framework is the importance of ensuring safe delivery, which means the provision of sufficient clean water and cleansing agents and the adoption of good hygienic practices by birth attendants and mothers. An unclean birth cannot be a safe birth.

The UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Summit was a crucial opportunity to galvanise political momentum and to secure concrete commitments to accelerate progress on the MDGs as the deadline of 2015 approaches.  On maternal and child health, the Summit resulted in commitments from a range of partners – including the private sector and foundations – that together will save the lives of 16 million women and children by 2015. The UK’s pledge to double our efforts on maternal, newborn and child health will save the lives of at least 50,000 women in pregnancy and childbirth, save 250,000 newborn babies and enable 10 million couples to access modern methods of family planning. The clear emphasis on results and outcomes rather than input targets is a very positive development. 

We are also undergoing a detailed review of all work the Government does on international development, to ensure we achieve maximum progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.  Water, sanitation and mother and child health will be essential features of our work so I am sure your supporters will be interested to see the results of the review when they are published in the coming months.

I hope this reply will reassure you that the Coalition Government continues to place a high priority on access to safe and clean water and sanitation, particularly in the context of maternal, newborn and child health.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

November 2010

Thank you for your letter on behalf of your constituent regarding the ‘No New Debt Send a Pound’ campaign.

Unfortunately, DFID does not have the legal authority to accept the £1 coin donations from the general public. DFID is subject to the usual Treasury requirements, which means that any donations are treated as excess income and need to be returned to the Treasury. They are then used to meet all Government priorities and to reduce overall Government borrowing, and cannot be earmarked for international development or any other issue. As an alternative, the Treasury advised us that the money could be transferred onto a local charity; in this instance, the money would have been treated unofficially and not reported as part of DFID’s income. 

I understand that neither of these options is in keeping with the wishes of WDM and Jubilee Debt Campaign supporters. DFID has therefore agreed with WDM and Jubilee Debt Campaign that they should collect their supporters’ money for onwards transmission to the UN Adaptation Fund. I am sorry that we are unable to pass on the money ourselves, but we need to operate within the legal confines that govern how the Government raises revenue

Regarding concerns about DFID’s handling of campaign correspondence, I can assure WDM and Jubilee Debt Campaign supporters that DFID does take into account and values the views of the public on international development. I have seen the postcards sent by supporters and been regularly updated on the number of cards received. I therefore appreciate the strength of support on the issue, and I am grateful that they have taken the time to write.

The British Government is supportive of the Adaptation Fund. We are active members of the Adaptation Fund’s Board and we welcome the progress that the Adaptation Fund has made.  The Adaptation Fund has now signed a Memorandum of Understanding for its first project, on coastal erosion in Senegal, which will be managed by the first National Implementing Entity to be accredited.  I welcome this progress in putting the principle of country ownership into action and starting to support concrete adaptation projects on the ground. 

The UK also supports the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR), which was designed to deliver something that no other existing fund or mechanism can – a strategic, programmatic approach to finance for adaptation, which delivers transformational outcomes in a small number of pilot countries.  The PPCR plays an important role alongside the Adaptation Fund and aims to provide lessons for the Adaptation Fund and other future financing mechanisms. 

The PPCR provides countries with grant finance and the option of taking highly concessional loans on top of this.  The loans have zero or near-zero per cent interest rates, low administration and service charges and long repayment periods. The first round of national investment plans has made it clear that there is a strong demand for these highly concessional loans. 

I believe both the Adaptation Fund and the PPCR have important, complementary, roles to play in supporting developing countries to adapt to the consequences of climate change.

I will make further decisions on the allocations of the International Climate Fund (ICF) over the course of 2011, based on assessment of fiduciary standards, need, results and value for money.

I would again like to thank you for your interest in supporting adaptation in developing countries and to assure you that DFID remains open to and very much welcomes the views of the WDM, Jubilee Debt Campaign and their supporters.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

November 2010

Thank you for your email jointly addressed to the Chancellor and me about access to clean and safe water and sanitation. I am replying on behalf of us both.

I agree that water and sanitation are the most basic of needs, and everyone should have access to these services.  I believe that the UK has a strong obligation to address the challenge of improving opportunities for the poorest people in the world. It is shocking that in 2010, 2.6 billion people do not have proper sanitation and 4,000 people, mostly children, die daily for the lack of access to safe water and basic sanitation, most from easily preventable diseases like diarrhoea.

The Coalition Government has committed to spending 0.7% of the UK’s Gross National Income in development aid from 2013. In our ‘Programme for Government’  we stated that we will prioritise aid spending on programmes to ensure everyone has access to clean water and sanitation along with other vital basic services. The Department for International Development (DFID) has major programmes throughout Africa and Asia that are already delivering improved access to safe water and improved sanitation. 

The UK’s leadership and in particular the Government’s spending commitment was commended by all of our international partners at the recent UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Sanitation was particularly highlighted as one of the most off-track and there was a call for all development partners to take stronger action to accelerate progress on this critical MDG target. Improvements to sanitation underpin progress on many of the other MDGs – infant mortality, nutritional health and overall growth. The Outcome Document from the Summit calls on governments and their partners to continue to increase funding for sustainable access to water and sanitation and to accelerate efforts to close the sanitation gap, especially for the poor.

To determine how we can achieve best results and value for money for UK taxpayers, I have commissioned a review of all UK aid spending. This review focused on the results being achieved and how UK aid can make the most effective contribution to progress towards the MDGs, including the targets on water and sanitation.  I hope that you will agree with the importance of the reviews and when the outcomes emerge, you will welcome the improvements we will be able to make to the lives of such a large number of people.

DFID will continue to work closely with WaterAid and other civil society organisations focused on water and sanitation.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

October 2010

Thank you for your letter supporting the Tearfund campaign on the Global Fund.

In 2007, the UK made an unprecedented long term commitment to the Global Fund of up to £1 billion to 2015, comprising up to £360 million over 2008-10 and up to £640 million over 2011-15, subject to high quality demand, sustainable impact and good performance.

We assess the Fund’s performance largely against criteria that are well known and in the public domain, including against the Key Performance Indicators agreed by the Fund’s Executive Board. While the Fund has undoubtedly achieved impressive results in some areas, my view is that in others the Fund’s performance could be significantly improved.

For example, we want to see the Fund get better at working with countries and other donors, demonstrating better value for money.  We want ongoing reforms to be implemented with pace and urgency.

The Department for International Development has launched a Multilateral Aid Review (MAR) to look at UK funding to multilateral agencies. The review will include an assessment of the relevance of the Global Fund to the UK’s objectives on poverty reduction and its ability to deliver results on the ground. The results of the MAR will be an important element in determining any future funding decisions in respect of the Fund, and this is the position that the UK delegation took during the recent Global Fund Replenishment Conference.

The Global Fund Replenishment Conference raised a total of $11.7bn in formal pledges and projections. This is the largest ever financial commitment to the Fund’s work, and represents a 20% increase on the last Replenishment, which raised $9.7bn for 2008-2010.  Although less than many had hoped, this is a very significant achievement given the current economic climate.  However, it does mean that the Fund will need to become even more efficient, driving costs down and increasing effectiveness so that it maximises the health results that it buys with every single dollar that it raises.

The Global Fund press release on the outcomes of the Conference can be found at the following web address: http://www.theglobalfund.org

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

October 2010

Thank you for your letter in support of the CAFOD campaign ‘Act on Poverty’.

Reaching an ambitious and fair international agreement to tackle climate change is a key priority for the Coalition Government. We are working hard to ensure that as much progress as possible is made in the next international meeting in Cancun. It is the world’s poorest people who are hit first and hardest by climate change, are least responsible for its causes, and are least able to cope with its effects. To help to ensure that the voice of the poorest countries is heard, we are planning an Advocacy Fund to support them to participate fully in the negotiations. We are also delivering on the UK commitment made at Copenhagen to provide £1.5 billion in climate finance to developing countries over 2010-2012, part of a $30 billion pledge from developed countries.

You mention the Government’s commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI on overseas aid by 2013. I am happy to confirm that we remain fully committed to this, despite the difficult economic times we are living through – and we are continuing to press other countries to deliver on their commitments too.

I agree that business has a crucial role to play in enabling poor countries to lift themselves out of poverty and in helping to tackle climate change. DFID is working with international companies to create new ways of doing business that are both profitable and have a positive and sustainable impact on a country’s development. For example, as part of DFID’s Business Call to Action initiative, Abellon CleanEnergy has committed to make a $100 million investment in Ghana to establish a biomass production and generation facility. Abellon will build a bio-plant and convert a degraded forest into a sustainable forest. The investment should provide sustainable energy to one million customers in Ghana by 2015, reduce CO2 emissions by up to 200,000 tonnes per year, create 25,000 new jobs and provide new opportunities for smallholder farmers to sell their produce.

DFID is a member of the 10:10 campaign and is working hard to reduce its carbon footprint. I wish you and your parishioners all the best in your efforts to reduce own carbon footprints.

With best wishes,

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

October 2010

Thank you for your letter supporting the Oxfam campaign to protect the UK’s aid budget.

The Coalition Government has made a very clear pledge to increase aid spending to meet the target of 0.7% of GNI as Official Development Assistance from 2013. We will also enshrine this spending commitment in law as soon as the parliamentary timetable allows. 

The climate in which we will deliver this commitment is very tough.  However, the Government is clear that it is wrong to balance the budget on the backs of the world's poorest people.

In the current financial climate, we have a particular duty to achieve one hundred pence of value for every single pound of taxpayers’ money that we spend on overseas development.  DFID has launched reviews of all the aid money spent through our bilateral country programmes and money delivered through multilateral organisations.  These reviews will determine how and where we spend aid money in the future and ensure we get maximum value from our resources.

Both the Coalition Government commitment to 0.7% and our current reviews of the aid spend will help make sure that the UK remains a global leader in providing high quality, high impact aid.

I hope this information is helpful.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

October 2010

Thank you for your postcards about funding for adaptation.  Climate change will have a severe impact on poor people in developing countries – those that are the least able to cope.  That is why the Coalition Government is committed to helping the developing world carry out the urgent work needed to adapt to climate change, adopt clean technology and grow in a low-carbon fashion. 

The UK has committed to contribute £1.5 billion of ‘fast start’ funding over three years (2010-2012) to help developing countries tackle climate change.  Decisions on future financial allocations, including for adaptation, will be determined through the Spending Review.  This will be finalised in the autumn.  The Government continues to work hard in the High Level Advisory Group on Climate Finance, on which my colleague - Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, sits – pressing for new sources of climate finance.

I welcome the progress that the Adaptation Fund has made in recent months in approving its first projects and starting to accredit national organisations to directly access and manage the funds that they are allocated.  The UK is supporting the design of the Adaptation Fund as an active Board Member and we welcome the progress that the Adaptation Fund is making in piloting ‘direct access’.

The UK supports the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR), which was designed to deliver something that no other existing fund or mechanism can currently deliver – a strategic, programmatic, approach to finance for adaptation, which delivers transformational outcomes in a small number of pilot countries.  It aims to provide lessons for the Adaptation Fund and other future financing mechanisms.

Under the PPCR, pilot countries are provided with grant finance, and are able to choose whether to take highly concessional loans on top of this.  These loans will be highly concessional due to their zero or near-zero per cent interest rates, low administration fees and service charges and long repayment periods, meaning that each £1 loan is equivalent to around 75p in grant.  The loans will be consistent with the Debt Sustainability Framework – i.e. they will not be available to countries that cannot afford to repay them.  Loan money from the UK repaid to the PPCR will be able to be used to finance further lending, meaning that a greater number of countries can benefit from adaptation finance.

I would like to thank you for your interest in supporting adaptation in developing countries.  I can assure you that the finance you provide through the tax you pay is being focused on achieving the best possible result in developing countries.  This includes through grants through the bilateral programme, such as in Bangladesh where grant finance has helped raise over 91,000 homes above flood levels.

In terms of the £1 you sent, unfortunately DFID does not have the legal authority to accept donations from the general public so we have written to the campaign organisers requesting that they accept the funds for onward transmission to the Adaptation Fund.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

September 2010

Thank you for your letter about the UN MDG Summit.

The Summit was a success for British leadership and more importantly for the world’s poorest people. It was an important opportunity to build political momentum and to secure concrete commitments to accelerate progress on the MDGs as the world approaches the deadline of 2015.

The UK’s leadership and in particular the Government’s commitment to maintain our pledge to spend 0.7% of our national income on aid from 2013 was commended by all of our international partners. UK civil society also played a critical role in building public support and international momentum both ahead of and during the Summit in New York.

On maternal health the Summit reached agreement on the Secretary General’s Global Strategy which aims to save the lives of 16 million women and children by 2015.  It attracted unprecedented financial commitments from a range of partners – including the private sector and foundations – totalling $40 billion. The UK’s pledge to double our efforts on maternal, newborn and child health will save the lives of at least 50,000 women in pregnancy and childbirth, save 250,000 newborn babies and enable 10 million couples to access modern methods of family planning.

On malaria, the UK pledged to help halve the number of deaths in at least 10 African countries by 2015 by increasing access to malaria prevention, diagnostics and treatment backed by an increase in funding to as much as £500 million per year by 2014. The clear emphasis on results and outcomes rather than input targets was a very positive development.

The Summit was also notable for the extent of developing country engagement. Tanzania pledged to spend 15% of their national budget on health and Liberia promised to secure universal coverage of bed nets to combat malaria by the end of this year. Developing countries also took the lead on side events on issues such as climate change and conflict.

The UK used the Summit to highlight the challenges around the delivery of basic services, including access to clean water and sanitation. I am pleased that this is reflected in the Outcome Document, which includes a call to continue to increase sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation and to redouble efforts to close the sanitation gap and increase the coverage of basic sanitation, especially for the poor. We will continue to work with international partners to ensure this progress towards the achievement of these important MDG targets.

Finally, we should acknowledge the importance of the Summit Outcome Document. Drawing on the real experiences of countries that have successfully tackled poverty in recent years, the Outcome Document sets out an integrated framework for action which can be a focus for global efforts over the next five years.

A great deal of work must be done to ensure that this momentum is carried forward both through the annual review mechanism in ECOSOC which the UK pressed for and in other international fora, including the G20. I hope we can continue to work together to ensure that the energy and political commitment evident in New York are sustained.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

September 2010

Thank you for your email about the importance of focussing on off-track Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the UN Summit.

As you know, the UK Coalition Government will be prioritising maternal and child health at the Summit and beyond.  As part of a comprehensive approach to these issues we will include support for AIDS treatment, including prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, and help to promote increased access to water and sanitation. These critical areas are also reflected within the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, which the UK is supporting.

Thank you for your continuing support for this important issue.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

September 2010

Thank you for your letter calling on the Government to “Finish the job” for child health. 

I completely agree that it is incredible that so many people, especially women and children, die needlessly every year.  Bold international action is needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  The UN Summit is an important opportunity to agree an ambitious agenda for action for the final five years.

Maternal, newborn and child health are high priorities for the Coalition Government, and we intend to add significantly to global efforts to reduce the number of deaths among children and mothers. The Department for International Development (DFID) works with national governments in our partner countries to build equitable, accessible and efficient health services that meet the needs of the poorest people.

You asked the Government to pledge support for the Joint Action Plan on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. This is now known as the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. I am pleased to be able to assure you that DFID has been closely involved in the development of the Strategy and we will be doing everything in our power to urge all countries to support its endorsement at the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals.  

With regards to user fees, you rightly point out that financial barriers to health services can prevent the poorest people from getting the care they need. To tackle this we are adopting a twin-pronged approach. Firstly, we are investing in health systems to increase the supply and quality of health services; secondly, we are helping remove the barriers that prevent poor people accessing care, working alongside our partners to support their own priorities.

We are helping many developing countries replace health user fees, especially for women and children, with more efficient and fairer health financing mechanisms. In Sierra Leone, DFID has been the lead donor in supporting the launch of free health care for pregnant women, breastfeeding women and children under five. This initiative has already resulted in a trebling in the use of basic health care by children under five since April this year.  

DFID is currently preparing a business plan that will set out how we plan to accelerate our support to reproductive, maternal and newborn health over the next four years. As part of this process we are holding a public consultation to gather views and contributions of people and organisations across the world. I would encourage and welcome broad participation in this process. 

I would like to thank you for your interest and for taking the time to write in support of this important subject.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

August 2010

Thank you for your recent message urging me to make tackling hunger a top priority at the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Summit in September.

I very much share your concern.  The internationally agreed hunger and malnutrition targets remain stubbornly off-track.  At the MDG Summit we need renewed commitments from all partners, as well as a clear road map to show how we can achieve the targets by 2015.

At the G8 summit in June, the Prime Minister reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to spend over a £1 billion on achieving specific outcomes on agriculture and food security over three years.  We remain on-track to meet this pledge. Our funding will help raise farmers’ incomes, reduce the number of people going hungry, and increase the nutrition levels of children. 

The Department for International Development supports this agenda in a number of ways.  For example, we support the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which targets small-scale farmers, many of them women.  In Ethiopia, our support for the Productive Safety Nets Programme has improved the food security of 7.8 million people previously dependent on emergency aid. We remain major supporters of Malawi’s fertiliser and seeds programme, and we support food security and agriculture programmes in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and India.

Our priority now is to ensure that our spending achieves sustainable and measurable results, and represents the best possible value for UK taxpayers’ money.  

I hope you find this reply helpful.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

August 2010

Thank you for your correspondence in support of WaterAid’s campaign on clean water and sanitation for the world’s poorest people. I am well acquainted with WaterAid and the leadership they show on these important issues.  I am replying as the Minister who leads on the issues raised.

It is shocking that in 2010, 4,000 people mostly children, die each for the lack of access to safe water and basic sanitation, mostly from easily preventable diseases like diarrhoea.   

The Coalition Government places a high priority on providing the poorest people in the world with clean water and sanitation.  Our Programme for Government highlights that we will prioritise aid spending on programmes to ensure everyone has access to clean water and sanitation along with other vital basic services, and focus on the rights of women, children and disabled people.

We are reviewing all UK aid spending to determine how we can achieve results and value for money for UK taxpayers and make progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including the targets on water and sanitation.  We are also looking forward to the UN MDG Summit in September, when the whole international community must focus on how we will use the remaining five years to achieve the MDGs.

I hope this helps.

Stephen O'Brien
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State

August 2010

Thank you for your letter about the Christian Aid campaign, ‘A new beginning: Poverty Over’. I am replying as the Minister at the Department for International Development who leads on the issues raised.

I agree that climate change will impact hardest on poor people in developing countries, who are also the least able to cope. That is why the Government is committed to helping the developing world carry out the urgent work needed to adapt to climate change, adopt clean technology and reduce emissions from deforestation. The UK is contributing £1.5 billion in climate finance for developing countries over three years (2010-2012). This finance is drawn from the UK’s aid budget, which is due to rise to 0.7% of UK national income by 2013. This demonstrates a major commitment by the UK – in difficult economic times – to helping developing countries tackle climate change.

The UK’s climate finance contribution was made in the context of the commitment made by developed countries at the Copenhagen Summit in December 2009 to provide $30 billion (approximately £21 billion) over 2010-2012 to kick start emission reduction measures and help developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. For the longer term, developed countries committed to the goal of mobilising $100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing countries tackle climate change. The UK is working to identify new sources of climate finance for developing countries to contribute to this goal, including by participating in the UN Secretary General's Advisory Group on Finance.

The EU has committed to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels, with the possibility to increase its target to 30% in the context of an ambitious global deal on climate change. The UK is pushing for the EU to demonstrate leadership in tackling international climate change by supporting an increase in its emissions reduction target to 30%.

Effective tax systems are central to effective states, and the Coalition Government will work with developing countries to explore how they can best benefit from recent improvements in tax transparency. The new Government has already demonstrated its commitment to this by being among the first countries to sign an amendment to the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance on Tax Matters, at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on 27 May. The amendment brings the Convention into line with latest international standards of information exchange, including information held by banks, and opens the Convention to a potentially worldwide membership.

As you may know, country-by-country reporting requirements are currently being explored both by an OECD Informal Task Force on Tax and Development and by the International Accounting Standards Board.  The Coalition Government very much welcomes this work and hopes that it will be able to provide solid, practical evidence which will allow us to assess the different approaches to transparency. In the end, our priority must be to identify the most effective means of delivering real benefits to developing countries.

Stephen O'Brien
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State

August 2010

Thank you for your letter supporting Oxfam's campaign 'Mums Matter', which aims to improve maternal health and save women's lives in the poorest countries in the world.

Improving maternal health is a major priority for the Coalition Government and an area that the Prime Minister has personally championed.  We share your constituents’ concerns about the number of women who die each year in developing countries from preventable causes. We are all determined to see faster global progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to do all we can to tackle the scandal of women dying in childbirth.

At the recent G8 meeting, the Prime Minister worked with other G8 leaders to ensure the world continues to deliver on its commitments to cut the number of women and children dying during pregnancy and childbirth. I am personally delighted that the G8 delivered a significant boost to improving maternal, newborn and child health. The Muskoka Initiative will prevent 1.3 million under five deaths, 64,000 maternal deaths and enable an additional 12 million women to have access to modern family planning.

As I said in a recent keynote speech in Washington, for us, mums really do matter, and we want to make a serious contribution to tackling the tragedy of maternal deaths. The UK Government will continue to work in developing countries to meet our promises and to provide the required long-term investment in health. This is so that women and children can access better health services and to ensure they have skilled midwives and other nurses to care for women, particularly in emergencies. We also want to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights, including access to modern family planning, as a way of empowering and promoting women’s choice in the developing world.

The UN MDG Summit in September, with the aim of delivering the UN Secretary-General’s Joint Action Plan to improve the health of women and children, will be the next significant milestone. The Prime Minister writing in The Guardian said we should be ambitious on this issue.  We will be doing everything in our power to urge all countries to sign up to a strong set of commitments on maternal health at the Summit and that the UN delivers for mothers and children.

I hope this will assure your constituents that the Department for International Development will be placing women at the heart of the whole of our agenda and that ‘Mums really do Matter'.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

August 2010

Thank you for your letter about the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Summit in New York in September.

I am very pleased to say that the Deputy Prime Minister will represent the UK as head of delegation at the UN MDG Summit as the Prime Minister will be on paternity leave. The UK is committed to securing an ambitious outcome in September that agrees an action agenda for achieving the MDGs by 2015 and secures additional results based commitments on the most off-track MDGs.  The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister will continue to press other world leaders to attend the Summit as it is an important opportunity to advance our goal of tackling extreme poverty in developing countries.

You are right to say that we must protect the most vulnerable, including children. We are strongly committed to working towards children achieving their full potential as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. At the UN MDG Summit, the UK will encourage others to invest in protecting and promoting the rights of adolescent girls. This should include the creation of safe spaces to reduce their vulnerability to violence, to build girls’ social networks, raise awareness of their rights, and build life, livelihoods and leadership skills.

Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State

August 2010

Thank you for your correspondence raising concerns about world poverty and the Coalition Government’s intentions. I am replying as the Minister responsible for the issues raised.

I agree with that it is a scandal that millions of people in our world suffer from hunger and lack the very basics like clean water and sanitation. It is shocking and simply absurd that, in the year 2010, 25,000 children die every day, mostly from easily preventable diseases.

The Coalition Government places a high priority on ensuring that everyone has access to vital basic services such as clean water, sanitation, healthcare and education.  I enclose the international development part of The Coalition: Our Programme for Government so that your constituent can be reassured that the Government feels very strongly about the important issues raised.

The Department for International Development (DFID) is committed to increasing our efforts to improve access to food. In 2009, DFID fed 90,000 starving children in East Africa. In 2010, DFID will help treat over 31,000 children across the Eastern Sahel (Niger, Chad and Central African Republic) suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Every year DFID humanitarian funding in Democratic Republic of Congo reaches over 4 million Congolese people. We are also working hard to help poor countries increase their food production so that they are not reliant on others. Doubling the production of staple crops in Africa would reduce food prices by 25% and lift 100 million people out of poverty. We are working towards that goal: DFID is supporting increased agricultural production, rural development including rural roads, and safety nets for those who fall into hunger in Africa and other poor countries.

DFID is also working to improve access to water and sanitation. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 69% of people lack access to basic sanitation and 37% lack safe drinking water. This has a significant impact on people’s health and well-being, as well as economic development and environmental sustainability. For example, in Ghana, poor environmental health is estimated to cost up to 9% of GDP. DFID is working to improve this situation and will help up to 25 million more people gain access to safe water and sanitation in Africa over the next five years. We will support at least 30 million people in Asia to get access to sanitation by 2011.

I hope I have reassured you that the UK Government is fully committed to tackling global poverty and hunger. We will honour our commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI on overseas aid from 2013, and will enshrine this commitment in law.

With only 5 years to go until the deadline, 2010 is a crucial year for the MDGs. The UK will lead the way in galvanising concerted international action at the UN MDG Summit in September in order to meet the goals by 2015. We will prioritise the most off-track MDGs, in particular maternal health, and focus on delivering basic services like access to clean water and sanitation.

I hope this letter is helpful. If you would like to read more about the Department or our work, you can find more information on our website.

Stephen O’Brien
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State