Select committee: International Development Committee
Recommendation 9
First Report - The FCDO’s approach to sexual and reproductive health
Published 25 Jan 2024
Paragraph 39
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
International Development Committee FCDO’s approach to sexual and reproductive health All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The involvement of trained health personnel and access to adequate health care facilities for maternal and newborn health improves health outcomes for the mother and child. The FCDO should support the strengthening of healthcare systems by prioritising investment in the development of health infrastructure, particularly WASH infrastructure. The FCDO should prioritise support for training and retention of health personnel in low-and-middle-income countries. The FCDO should calculate a minimum percentage of ODA to be spent on the training of health personnel in low- and-middle-income countries. It should explain to the Committee why it has chosen this target and ensure adequate commitment of funding.
From: International Development Committee, First Report - The FCDO’s approach to sexual and reproductive health (HC 108), paragraph 39, 25 January 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 17 May 2024 (deadline 25 March 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with many of the Committee's conclusions on sexual and reproductive health and rights, but disagrees with setting minimum spending targets and partially agrees with others, citing the need for flexibility.
- It agrees that cuts to UK ODA budgets have affected its SRHR work, saying "it is incontrovertible that damage was done", and agrees that consistent and long-term funding is necessary.
- It disagrees with recommendation 3 on a minimum percentage of bilateral ODA for SRHR, saying such targets "could result in a suboptimal portfolio of programming". It gives similar reasons for preferring budget flexibility on WASH and health personnel training targets.
- On multilateral funding it partially agrees, but says it "cannot agree to meet a set level of financial commitment, or restore discretionary funding". It is "unable to return our core funding" to UNFPA to pre-Covid-19 levels.
- It commits to publishing an Ending Preventable Deaths narrative report in 2024, reporting through existing mechanisms rather than setting up a parallel framework.