Ivan Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of planned budget changes to her Department’s Afghanistan Project on economic security in that country.

Mr Desmond Swayne

The UK remains committed to a long term partnership with Afghanistan, as I communicated to President Ghani when I visited in June 2015.

It is worth noting that Afghanistan has made significant progress over the last decade, and the UK will continue our support to protect these hard-won gains. For example, UK support has helped ensure that more than 60% of the population now live within 2 hours walking distance of public health facilities, compared to only 9% in 2002. We have committed to spend £178m million in bilateral aid per year until at least 2017, and future commitments will be determined as part of the Bilateral Aid Review, due to be published shortly.