PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Multinational Companies: Charitable Donations (28 April 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of UK donations to multilateral organisations has been spent on (a) personal protective equipment, (b) testing and (c) water, sanitation and hygiene during the covid-19 pandemic.

Asked by:
Fleur Anderson (Labour)

The UK has so far committed £744 million of aid to the global fight against COVID-19. Along with other donors we are supporting UN agencies, the Red Cross and NGOs to respond to COVID-19 in developing countries. This includes helping the world’s poorest countries in a range of ways including accessing critical medical supplies. By supporting developing countries to properly respond to COVID-19, the UK is helping end the global pandemic sooner and prevent future waves of infection coming to the UK.

As part of our overall package, up to £318 million will support finding a vaccine, new drugs, therapeutics and research and development for COVID-19.

The UK government is also working with Unilever to fund a global hygiene programme, with £50 million of support from DFID, to urgently tackle the spread of COVID-19. It will reach up to a billion people worldwide, raising awareness and changing behaviour, to make sure people are washing their hands with soap regularly and disinfecting surfaces. The programme will also provide over 20 million hygiene products in the developing world, including in areas where there is little or no sanitation. This is in addition to our many existing projects on water, sanitation and hygiene.

Answered by:
Wendy Morton (Conservative)
4 May 2020