Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what changes are being made to funding streams in her Department’s budget to help assist refugees close to or in their countries of origin.

Rory Stewart

The UK is at the forefront of international efforts to assist refugees close to their countries of origin. The UK has increased its response to the Syria crisis to £2.3 billion and our support is reaching hundreds of thousands of people in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The UK is pioneering a new model of support to refugees through international Compacts with refugee-hosting countries to provide long-term education and employment opportunities to refugees, while supporting the economic development of the host nation. Refugee-hosting compacts have been agreed so far with Jordan, Lebanon and Ethiopia.

As part of our new approach we have contributed £80m to the World Bank MENA Concessional Finance Facility to support refugees in Jordan and Lebanon and have pledged £30m to the new Education Cannot Wait fund to support education in crises, including refugees.