Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 58
58
Paragraph: 282
In response to this report, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office should set out the...
Recommendation
In response to this report, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office should set out the extent to which the announced cuts to the UK’s aid budget will affect overseas development assistance for family planning and reproductive healthcare. We recommend that ODA for family planning and reproductive healthcare be protected: at the very least the percentage allocated to both these areas should be equal or higher than 2019 levels.
Paragraph Reference:
282
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
Supporting people in their reproductive choices, including through the provision of voluntary family planning, may have a positive impact on the conservation of nature over the long term given the role this plays in empowering women and lowering fertility rates. In this context, it is important to note that it is high income countries that have the greatest impact on the biosphere. The UK is a proud defender of sexual and reproductive health and rights, and between 2015 and 2020 reached an average of 25.3 million women and girls with modern methods of family planning per year. In 2019, the UK spent £402 million on Family Planning and Reproductive Healthcare bilateral programmes and provided £20 million of core support to UNFPA. In the Government’s response to the Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity, we committed to use aid spending and diplomacy to support the empowerment of women, as one of the smartest investments we can make to lift people out of poverty, increase prosperity and ensure that women benefit from the transition to a nature positive future. The Government has also committed to supporting the launch of FP2030, the new global partnership to accelerate country leadership on voluntary family planning, in 2021. The Government has had to make difficult funding decisions to deal with the financial impact of the pandemic, but despite this FCDO will spend £1,305m on global health in 2021/22 and will continue to fund a broad range of programmes that support sexual and reproductive health and rights (including family planning). FCDO spend by sector is calculated using OECD-DAC sector codes. Details of FCDO spend by sector code for 2021 will be available in the Statistics on International Development publication in Autumn 2022 and details of FCDO spend for 2022 will be available in the Statistics on International Development publication in Autumn 2023. FCDO programme sector codes are available on DevTracker.