The UK funds numerous projects in support of the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) through our central programme and posts overseas, including a strong focus on our current PSVI focus countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Iraq, South Sudan, and Ukraine - and on current major conflicts in which conflict related sexual violence (CRSV) has become a significant issue. For example, in February, the Foreign Secretary announced £20 million of new UK funding to support survivors of CRSV in Sudan, to be delivered through the British Office Sudan.

The Foreign Secretary has been clear that we must renew global focus and ambition around women, peace and security, and put the rights of women and girls, including freedom from violence, at the heart of UK foreign policy.

We continue to work through the UK-founded International Alliance for Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, of which the UK is vice-chair this year, to rally further support for tackling the silence and stigma faced by survivors of sexual violence, including the women and girls in Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar and elsewhere who have faced the use of rape as a weapon of war.

The roles of UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls and the Prime Minister's Special Representative for Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict are unremunerated.

The UK has supported the work of the Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Torture victims (KRCT) to provide medical, gynaecological, psycho-rehabilitation services, as well as legal support and economic empowerment programmes to survivors since 2014. Since 2021 we have provided approximately £1 million with funding for this financial year currently standing at £57,000. This funding helps support KRCT's work to address stigma, enable survivors to speak out about their experiences and help others to seek the justice they deserve, and aims to remove the deadline for survivors to apply for status recognition.

The UK is deeply concerned by rising levels of acute food insecurity and catastrophic hunger. We are a key government donor to the World Food Programme (WFP); in 2024 we contributed over $600 million to WFP initiatives, including in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Sudan, South Sudan and Haiti.

We are also driving international action to scale-up Pre-Arranged Finance, making sure finance reaches the most vulnerable and hardest hit ahead of, or quickly after, a disaster strikes. This includes supporting vulnerable countries and humanitarian agencies to respond to harvest failures caused by drought. We recently supported anticipatory drought insurance for WFP in Syria, which paid out $7.7 million for emergency assistance.

However, simply responding to crises is not a long-term solution, and we are working with partners to improve early warning systems, to act ahead of shocks and invest in strengthening countries' resilience to food crises in the longer-term.

In October 2023, the Human Rights Council adopted the UK-led resolution to establish an international and Independent Fact-Finding Mission to investigate evidence of human rights abuses and violations in Sudan. Following publication of its first report in September, the UK co-led renewal on 9 October 2024 of the Fact-Finding Mission's mandate for a further year, with the Resolution passing by a higher vote margin this year. The UK continues to support the work of the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) to gather open-source evidence on the ongoing fighting, with a view to supporting future accountability efforts. We continue to support the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor's ongoing work to investigate the allegations of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. Our practical support to the ICC more broadly includes witness protection; sentence enforcement; commitment to the ICC's reform process; and work to ensure that the Court has the resources it needs to operate effectively.

Poor implementation of South Sudan's peace agreement to date is driving violence and the humanitarian crisis. It is vital that the South Sudanese government deliver progress according to timelines set out in their Roadmap. The Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) and the Ceasefire & Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring & Verification Mechanism (CTSAMVM) play an important part in monitoring the peace agreement. The FCDO funds in-kind support through the placement of technical experts in both CTSAMVM and RJMEC. In Financial Year 2021-2022, this amounted to £1.2 million in-kind support and in Financial Year 2022-2023 support totalled £407,261. For Financial Year 2023-2024, the FCDO has committed to up to £480,000 continued in-kind support.

The UK is the largest donor to the Health Pooled Fund (HPF) in South Sudan providing up to £175 million from 2018 to 2024. In August 2022, the FCDO, on behalf of HPF donors, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of South Sudan setting out how we'll work together to transition responsibility for funding for eight state hospitals. HPF completed the phased withdrawal from the eight state and referral hospitals by 31 March 2023. In mid-March 2023, the Minister of Health for South Sudan reported that the Government of South Sudan would be procuring essential medicines for the unsupported health facilities.

The Department for International Trade, now known as the Department for Business and Trade, is responsible for the day-to-day management of the programme and each Trade Envoy has a Civil Servant relationship manager. Relationship managers act as the Trade Envoy’s point of contact, coordinating their activity and provide administrative support when they undertake overseas visits, by arranging flights, visas, a programme of activity and briefing.

The Trade Envoy role is unpaid, but this department meets the costs of any travel expenditure such as transport and accommodation to allow them to carry out their role.

My Lords, in practical terms, our aim is to raise at least $7.4 billion to fund Gavi’s work over the next five years. That will save millions of lives. I encourage our international partners to follow the UK’s lead and step up their support to Gavi.

My Lords, the UK has committed the equivalent of £330 million per year to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, over the next five years. As Gavi’s largest donor, UK funding will bolster and protect healthcare systems during the Covid-19 pandemic. That includes vaccinating children against other deadly diseases such as measles, yellow fever and polio. We look forward to hosting—virtually—the global vaccine summit on 4 June.

We are in regular contact with the World Health Organization (WHO) about its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and how it is working with multiple agencies and partners. The impact of the United States pause on funding, subject to review, is something we are closely monitoring. WHO continues to play a key leadership role in the overall response which we support, including on global coordination and planning for country level preparedness and response.

The UK’s funding for WHO is based on our assessment of the organisation’s needs and we continue to keep this under review. We are a key donor to WHO and have already contributed £75 million to help the organisation lead international efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 and end the pandemic.

There were no specific discussions with the US Government on this topic at the UN General Assembly. Discussions between UK and US officials will continue to take place regularly on a range of matters related to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. The UK remains the world’s largest donor to the UN Population Fund, enabling it to carry out its lifesaving work supporting some of the poorest and most marginalised people around the world.

Discussions between UK and US officials take place regularly on a range of matters related to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. The UK remains the world’s largest donor to the UN Population Fund, enabling it to carry out its lifesaving work supporting some of the poorest and most marginalised people around the world.