Source · Select Committees · International Development Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Paragraph: 40
The FCDO’s commitment to supporting women and girls, particularly through education, is welcome.
Conclusion
The FCDO’s commitment to supporting women and girls, particularly through education, is welcome. However, reductions in aid have been shown to disproportionately affect women and girls. Girls’ education is often more vulnerable when families face hardship and particularly during conflict or crises such as COVID-19. Many of these girls will never be able to return to school. Therefore, it is vital that the conditions that allow girls to attend to school for longer are addressed as well as the education systems themselves. General and reproductive healthcare, WASH access, caring responsibilities, child labour and early marriage all affect girls’ education, because new schools do not help girls if girls cannot attend them. Programmes that enable girls to access education must be adequately supported in line with the FCDO’s general commitment to supporting women and girls. The FCDO should focus education spending on the most impactful programmes for poverty Extreme poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals 53 reduction. This can be enhanced by complementary investments in social protection that reach the most vulnerable households, which are otherwise most likely to take girls out of school when crises occur.
Government Response Summary
The FCDO established an on-demand expert advice facility (SPACE) and STAAR continues that support to governments and partners on strengthening social protection systems to help prevent and be able to respond to crises.
Paragraph Reference:
40
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
We agree that COVID-19 highlighted the value of social protection systems, with over 222 countries and territories using social protection during the pandemic. During that time, the FCDO established an on-demand expert advice facility (SPACE) that provided advice to more than 40 countries on how to maintain, adapt or expand social protection systems to support those most economically affected by the crisis. STAAR, our successor technical assistance facility, continues that support to governments and partners on strengthening social protection systems to help prevent and be able to respond to crises. We also agree that social protection is vital in helping vulnerable people to build resilience and adapt their livelihoods to climate risks. It has a central role to play in both preventing and responding to global food insecurity. We are championing a strong climate lens in our own and others’ social protection investments, including the research component of our Better Assistance in Crises (BASIC) programme that is examining how social protection in protracted crisis contexts can contribute to greater resilience to shocks and climate adaptation. The UK remains committed to supporting progress towards the 2030 global goal of universal health coverage (UHC) and looks forward to a year of action in 2023 and beyond, driven by the High-Level Meeting (HLM) on UHC at UNGA in September. The UK is working with other Member States to drive a country-led, action-oriented set of commitments at the HLM, whilst championing the ongoing need for stronger domestic financing that focusses on primary health care first. Achieving UHC is the foundation stone to delivering the global goal of health and well-being for all, ending preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths and building prosperous societies resilient to pandemic and climatic threats and food insecurity. The UK has a longstanding reputation for helping to build stronger health systems. In countries like Nepal we have helped to increase the proportion of women giving birth in health facilities, from 9% in 2001 to 80% in 2022. We drive innovation, such as setting up the social financing company MedAccess through British International Investment to improve access to affordable, quality medicines, and we are at the core of partnerships like the Global Financing Facility that have supported countries to strengthen their health systems, reaching more than 103 million women with safe delivery care. Extreme poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals: Government Response 7