As at July 2020, the Department for International Development has disbursed £15,958,394 through the Hygiene, Handwashing & Behaviour Change Coalition for COVID-19 Response.

This relates to 14 contracts and Memoranda of Understandings with implementing partners, with a total value of £34,806,976.

Additional contracts are currently being negotiated.

The Hygiene, Handwashing and Behaviour Change Coalition for COVID-19 response programme aims to reach up to 1 billion people with hygiene messaging to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Implementation is underway with 21 partners working across 37 countries. While totals have still to be verified, for Phase 1 partners alone, we are on track to reach over 300 million of the most vulnerable across countries including the DRC, Bangladesh, Yemen and Ethiopia, including in refugee settings.

Over 20 million hygiene products have already been delivered to frontline NGOs, with 60 million more being prepared for distribution by Unilever.

The UK is a leading supporter of cash in humanitarian response as an effective, efficient, and accountable way of helping people affected by crisis meet a range of basic needs. A considerable proportion of our humanitarian assistance is currently delivered as cash (and vouchers) as per the UK Government's commitment at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit. The UK also co-convenes the Grand Bargain Cash Workstream with the World Food Programme.

As the Prime Minister has set out, the UK is committed to spending 0.7 per cent of gross national income on development. We continue to look at how this money can be spent most effectively in our national interest including through the Integrated Review, which will report in the Autumn and inform the new department's priorities.

The UK Government is committed to supporting vulnerable countries suffering from the economic, financial and social impacts of Covid-19 including countries affected by crisis, conflict and displacement.

The UK played a leading role in the development of the G20 Action Plan supporting the global economy through Covid-19, ensuring the Plan has clear commitments to help the poorest countries. This includes the Debt Service Suspension Initiative, which saw G20 members suspend debt service payments for the poorest, and most vulnerable, countries until at least the end of 2020.

We continue to work closely with G20 members to ensure robust implementation of the Action Plan

We are deeply concerned about the food security situation in East Africa, where nearly 25 million people are at crisis levels of food insecurity. Existing humanitarian need will be exacerbated by climate change, the desert locust outbreak and the impact of Covid-19.

The UK is working across East Africa to provide life-saving assistance, cash transfers where markets are still functioning, and tools and seeds to build a longer-term ability to respond to shocks. We are working through both our country programming and multilateral responses, which includes through the World Food Programme (WFP). In 2019, DFID has provided almost USD 700million to support WFP's operations. In 2020, our contribution so far is USD 254million (this includes a USD 19million contribution to WFP's global services in response to Covid-19).

The UK's 0.7 per cent Gross National Income target is directly linked to the performance of the UK economy. Like all other Government Departments, we need to make some tough prioritisation choices which will likely include the renegotiation of some of our contracts in light of the expected drop in GNI. In doing so, we will ensure that renegotiated contracts continue to deliver value for money for UK taxpayers and maximum impact for beneficiaries.

The Integrated Review, announced by the Prime Minister and expected to conclude later in the year, will define the Government's ambition for the UK's role in the world. Its outcomes will shape the objectives including for overseas development spending.

Local partners are fundamental to the UK's delivery of ODA being effective and impactful. This is particularly demonstrated through their knowledge, partnerships and agility. Ministers reviewed every strand of the ODA budget, evaluating the impacts of spend and making sure we can maintain operational capacity. Prioritisation decisions in DFID were made at the project level and considered various criteria such as: how programmes contribute to development impact; value for money; national interest; the impact on suppliers and supply chains - including local partners; and to what extent we could feasibly save money from a specific project. Bilateral projects were also assessed against the vulnerability of each country.

As the Chancellor has set out, like many other nations across the world the UK is experiencing a severe economic downturn as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Given the likely decrease in the size of the economy this year, the First Secretary chaired a review process across government looking at all strands of the ODA budget, evaluating the impacts of spend and making sure the UK can maintain operational capacity. This process also has made sure there is continued support for five ODA priorities; bottom billion poverty reduction, climate change, girls' education, Covid-19 and Britain as a force for good.

All ODA spending Departments will now work with respective partners to make these savings in a responsible and efficient way.

As the Chancellor has set out, like many other nations across the world the UK is experiencing a severe economic downturn as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Given the likely decrease in the size of the economy this year, the First Secretary chaired a review process across government looking at all strands of the ODA budget, evaluating the impacts of spend and making sure the UK can maintain operational capacity. This process also has made sure there is continued support for five ODA priorities; bottom billion poverty reduction, climate change, girls' education, Covid-19 and Britain as a force for good.

All ODA spending Departments will now work with respective partners to make these savings in a responsible and efficient way.

The UK is playing a leading role in the international response to the Covid-19 pandemic, pledging up to £774 million of UK aid to help developing countries (the 'global south') address the immediate and longer-term impacts of the crisis. Of the £774 million, £220 million has gone to UN agencies in the UN's Global Humanitarian Response Plan (GHRP), such as the World Food Programme and UN Refugee Agency, as well as humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross and international NGOs. DFID is also adapting its programmes across its country network to respond to COVID-19 and address the needs of the most vulnerable, as outlined in the GHRP. This funding will help address urgent needs in vulnerable countries, accelerate progress towards a vaccine, reinforce infection control and help the poorest countries address the economic impact of the crisis.

On 4 June, the UK hosted the Global Vaccine Summit, where world leaders, foundations, corporations and organisations pledged $8.8 billion for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The UK remains Gavi's largest donor, having pledged £1.65bn for 2021-25 to help strengthen health systems in the global fight against COVID-19 and immunise a further 300 million children in the world's poorest countries against other deadly diseases. We are a leading donor and shareholder to the multilateral development banks, which have announced financial packages totalling more than £200bn. Given the unprecedented high demand for rapid finance, the UK has doubled its pledge from £2.2bn to £4.4 billion to IMF loan resources for concessional lending to low-income and vulnerable developing countries, and pledged up to £150m to the IMF Catastrophe Containment Relief Trust for the poorest countries to receive debt relief on IMF repayments.

We will continue to work closely with our multilateral partners and fora such as the G7 and G20 to galvanise the global fight against Covid-19 and shape the multilateral response to ensure it addresses the needs of the world's poorest and most vulnerable.

The International Development Secretary has had ongoing discussion with key stakeholders during the review of ODA spending in 2020. She has worked with Cabinet colleagues throughout the HMG review to identify savings in this year's ODA budget. This involved participating in the meetings chaired by the First Secretary of State to oversee the review, and contributing to the final session of the review with the First Secretary of State and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. She wrote to all DFID private sector and civil society suppliers in May and published a statement on 1 June announcing that DFID would have to pause any new work given the GNI context. Following the outcome of the ODA savings exercise, the First Secretary of State has written to key suppliers to inform them about the outcome. This has been published on DFID's supplier portal, making it available to all DFID's suppliers. Regular and structured engagement was put in place with leading NGOs and CSOs, led by Baroness Sugg and DFID Permanent Secretary Nick Dyer to discuss prioritisation of aid spending during the review. A recent meeting with a number of CSOs took place on the 24 July, led by Baroness Sugg, which covered the conclusions of the review process.

As with any government change of this nature, the announcement came first to Parliament. The Government will continue its ongoing engagement with key stakeholders, including on issues relating to the merger. Plans on how we will do this with different partners will be shared in due course.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 74465 on 22/07/2020.

The Government continues to ensure that some of the best minds in the UK and beyond are feeding into the Review's conclusions.

We have started targeted engagement with academic stakeholders and will engage more widely still in the coming weeks; including with Parliament, Devolved Administrations, civil society, and our allies and partners. The Government has also now issued a Call for Evidence to help inform the Integrated Review. This will facilitate contributions from the public and our stakeholders with an interest and role in our nation's security and prosperity, and in tackling the global challenges the UK will face over the coming years.

The current combination of multiple crises could lead to a major food security crisis and even famine, triggered or made worse by COVID-19. Many countries are already experiencing severe food insecurity - due to conflict, climate change, shocks such as locusts, and poor economic performance. There is increasing evidence that COVID-19 is making this worse and may drive new hunger hotspots.

We know the situation is worsening. To prevent the food security crisis from skyrocketing, the international community will need to step up. DFID is playing its part. We are tracking the situation closely and our humanitarian assistance programmes help ensure we can get life-saving support to those who need it the most. We are adapting programmes in agriculture, nutrition and food security, to build resilience and prepare the ground for a sustainable recovery.

All of CDC's investments undergo a comprehensive and systematic assessment of their expected development impact using internationally recognised best practice methods. A team of over 60 development specialists work to ensure that each investment brings about a positive economic, social and environmental change in support of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

CDC invests to support the growth of companies that create employment and help transform economies, through the goods and services they produce and sell and the local taxes they generate. In 2019, CDC invested in businesses in Africa and South Asia that employed 875,790; generated 57 terawatt hours of electricity; and its agricultural investments sourced from 1.84 million farmers.

Africa needs increased economic infrastructure to unlock its full economic potential and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. CDC's primary aim when investing into the hotel sector is to create more and better jobs in countries that desperately need them. In addition, these investments support both local and national economic growth. For example, by purchasing goods and services from local suppliers, and by improving economic infrastructure.

Information about CDC's approach to assessing and monitoring the development impact of its investments is available on its website.

CDCs invests through Private Equity Funds to provide growth capital to companies in Africa and South Asia to create jobs and transform economies, focussing on the small and mid-size companies that face the biggest financing gap.

CDC's backing for Fund managers helps promote the adoption of higher Environmental, Social and Governance standards and support the development of self-sustaining local finance markets.

In the last five years CDC made new investment commitments to private equity funds of:

• 2015 - £238m
• 2016 - £289m
• 2017 - £273m
• 2018 - £311m
• 2019 - £284m.

CDC's investment into Wonderchef is supporting economic activity for thousands of women who participate in its direct-to-home sales network. Since CDC's investment was made in 2018, the company has also created around 350 direct jobs, with the number of female employees more than doubling in that time. In addition, the company has increased local sourcing of its products helping deliver impact through its supply chain.

This investment was made through a private equity fund managed by Amicus Capital Partners. CDC's partnership model with Fund managers helps it achieve impact at scale by supporting hundreds of SMEs across South Asia and Africa. In addition to backing local teams of investors, and equipping them with strong Environmental, Social and Governance practices, the model helps support the development of self-sustaining local finance markets.

CDC publishes the amounts it invests directly into businesses and investment funds on its website www.cdcgroup.com. Individual investment amounts made by its partners are not disclosed as this information is commercially sensitive.

As GAVI's largest donor, the UK is proud of the impressive results GAVI has achieved in vaccinating over 760 million children, and saving 13 million lives since 2000.

As the world grapples with the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK has been clear that the equitable global distribution of a vaccine will be the best defence against it, enable collective recovery, and reduce the risk of repeat outbreaks. We therefore strongly support Gavi using its expertise and experience to lead on accelerating global access to COVID-19 vaccines via the COVAX Facility.

The UK was represented by two senior DFID officials at the GAVI Board, where the priority is to ensure that the COVAX Advance Market Commitment delivers timely and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines in the poorest countries.

The UK's overarching priority for its £1.65 billion contribution to Gavi from 2021-25 is to maintain and improve routine immunisation against vaccine preventable diseases in the poorest countries.