Source · Select Committees · International Development Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Accepted
Ensure FCDO SIDS approach addresses gendered impacts, promotes equality, and collects disaggregated data.
Recommendation
In its approach to SIDS, the FCDO should ensure that the gendered impacts of SIDS’ environmental and developmental challenges are identified and addressed, and that UK support for SIDS is designed and implemented in a way that considers the impact of any interventions on women and girls. It should: (Paragraph 69) a) ensure that the FCDO’s bilateral aid programmes with SIDS, as well as centrally managed programmes, are on track to meet the commitment, outlined in the White Paper, that 80% of bilateral aid programmes have a focus on gender by 2030; b) support SIDS in collecting gender-disaggregated data to map the differential impact of development challenges and policy interventions on women and girls; c) make the promotion of gender equality an explicit, discrete investment criterion of the Blue Planet Fund. 44 The UK Small Island Developing States Strategy Oceans
Government response summary AI-generated
The government accepts the recommendation, affirming its commitment to the 80% gender focus target for bilateral aid by 2030, detailing existing support for gender-disaggregated data collection in SIDS, and confirming that the Blue Planet Fund's investment criteria are being refreshed to include a dedicated gender equality criterion.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted
Agree 24. The Government recognises that women and girls and other vulnerable and disadvantaged groups are disproportionately impacted by the economic shocks and climate impacts experienced by SIDS. The UK is prioritising a gender-responsive and socially inclusive approach to programmes in SIDS. FCDO remains committed that at least 80% of our bilateral aid programmes will have a focus on gender equality by 2030. While gender does not specifically feature in the external draft of the strategy, the FCDO is committed to mainstreaming gender across our programming and championing women’s voices in international advocacy. 25. For example in the Caribbean, our £350 million UK Caribbean Infrastructure Fund integrates gender equality, working to ensure that infrastructure meets the needs of all, promoting employment and livelihood development for women, and helping tackle risks of gender-based violence in the infrastructure space. The Caribbean Economic Development Programme has a strong focus on women’s economic empowerment through policy development and support to women-owned firms under the Compete project (£10.1 million UK contribution). Our £15 million Violence Prevention Partnership is working to help the Government of Jamaica tackle some of the gender issues driving high levels of violence by and among young males, as well as violence against women and children.
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