Select committee: International Development Committee
Recommendation 2
Fifth Report - Humanitarian crises monitoring: impact of coronavirus (interim findings)
Published 13 Nov 2020
Paragraph 52
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
International Development Committee Humanitarian crises monitoring: coronavirus in developing countries: secondary impacts All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Successive UK governments have always stated that safeguarding and action against gender-based violence, including sexual violence, were high priorities for action. We have previously welcomed this stance and recommend that the new Department continues to make it a priority to maintain and strengthen the international alliance around initiatives in this area. We also recommend that the new Department maintains the UK’s international leadership on this agenda, preserves existing levels of funding and seeks to identify what further interventions may counteract the effect that Covid has had in increasing levels of domestic violence and sexual exploitation and abuse of women and children.
From: International Development Committee, Fifth Report - Humanitarian crises monitoring: impact of coronavirus (interim findings) (HC 292), paragraph 52, 13 November 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 26 January 2021.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government sets out continued commitment to existing health and gender-based violence programmes, but states that it "disagrees" with the Committee's view that ODA funding should be switched away from COVID-19 research and development.
- On existing disease programmes, it says it will "continue to fund existing programmes which tackle previously identified diseases", including through Gavi and the Global Fund.
- It does not accept that COVID-19 research and development should move from ODA to other budgets, stating that such investment "qualify as ODA" under OECD DAC rules and that moving it "risks underfunding" research suited to developing countries.
- On gender-based violence, it says it "remains committed to eliminating all forms of gender-based violence" and is launching a successor programme, What Works to Prevent Violence: Impact at Scale.
- On a wider global health strategy, it describes the 2021 G7 Presidency as an "opportunity" and says it will work to implement the Prime Minister's five-point plan, without committing to the strategy the Committee proposed.