Select committee: International Development Committee
Recommendation 14
Sixth Report - UK aid to Pakistan
Published 29 Apr 2022
Paragraph 25
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
International Development Committee UK aid to Pakistan All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
As such, the UK Government should maintain dialogue with the Pakistani Government on the importance of an open society, including the need for civic spaces and religious and media freedom. As part of this, the FCDO should increase support to Pakistan’s National Commission on the Status of Women and its National Commission on Human Rights.
From: International Development Committee, Sixth Report - UK aid to Pakistan (HC 102), paragraph 25, 29 April 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 4 November 2022 (deadline 29 June 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says its aim is to move Pakistan from a "traditional aid relationship to a mature development partnership", with fewer, smaller development objectives, while continuing support for girls, women and marginalised groups.
- On the committee's call for long-term programmes, it says it "recognise[s] the importance of long-term approaches", and states that programme types and duration are based on the best available evidence and fit with UK priorities and the overall ODA budget allocation.
- On the Integrated Delivery Plan, it says the plan was replaced in 2021 by a Country Plan, which is "an internal document", and that a "light-touch review" of the Country Business Plan will take place "in the next few months".
- On NGO operating space, it commits that the FCDO "will write to the Committee within nine months to update on progress as requested".
- On nutrition, it says it has "exited bilateral ODA finance of nutrition" because other donors are active, while continuing to fund UN agencies that provide nutrition policy and services.