HC Deb 11 July 1980 vol 988 cc318-9W
Mrs. Renée Short

asked the Lord Privy Seal how much his Department has spent on assisting in the financing of the Tropical Medicine Research Board, at current prices, for the last five years; and why he is discontinuing such funding.

Mr. Neil Marten

The amounts spent by the ODA on research undertaken through or with the approval or cognisance of the Tropical Medicine Research Board are at current prices:

Mr. Neil Marten

The Government are greatly concerned about the situation, particularly in East Africa, where the effects of the continuing drought have been exacerbated by massive refugee problems. We are therefore making a substantial contribution to the international relief effort directed towards alleviating these problems. Our bilateral contributions so far in 1980 comprise:

  1. (a) £850,000 in response to the United Nations High Commissioner for Re 319 fugees' appeal for refugee relief in Somalia, a large part of which is taking the form of 5,000 tonnes of bilateral food aid; the balance will be in cash.
  2. (b) £850,000 to Sudan for refugee relief and resettlement in 1980–81.
  3. (c) £500,000 for northern Uganda to the Disasters Emergency Committee's East Africa emergency appeal.
  4. (d) About £120,000 spent on transport for urgently needed food and medical supplies for northern Uganda provided by international organisations and British voluntary agencies.

In addition, the European Community is providing a total of nearly £23 million of food aid and emergency assistance for various East African countries. The United Kingdom's share of this is about £4.5 million.