Family Planning (Hansard, 19 January 1994)

§ Mr. Robathan
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what contributions for 1994 are being made to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the United Nations Population Fund and the World Health Organisation Human Reproduction Programme.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
Decisions on the 1994 contributions to these agencies will be made shortly. I will write to my hon. Friend once the agencies have been informed.

§ Mr. Robathan
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what consultations have taken place with United Kingdom and other non-governmental organisations on constructing an EC policy on family planning projects in developing countries; and how many and which non-governmental organisations in the United Kingdom and in other member states have been consulted.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
ODA officials have participated in initial discussions with officials of the European Commission and other member states on the need for an effective consistent EC policy on reproductive health and family planning. The Government would welcome the views of United Kingdom non-governmental organisations once discussions start on substantive issues of policy and strategy.

§ Mr. Robathan
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what were the total bilateral disbursements on population activities, and to which countries, for 1993.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
New bilateral commitments totalling £11.2 million were made to Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Malawi in 1993. The figures for bilateral disbursement in 1993 are not yet available.

§ Mr. Jon Owen Jones
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what consultations have taken place with United Kingdom non-governmental organisations on the issues to be considered by the April 1994 third preparatory committee meeting for the international conference on population and development.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
Since the second preparatory committee meeting for this conference, there have been five meetings of the NGO forum convened to engage 591W United Kingdom NGOs in United Kingdom preparations for the conference and three workshops. The Government are, as a result, well informed of the views of United Kingdom non-governmental organisations on issues to be considered by the third preparatory committee meeting.

§ Mr. Robathan
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many and which budget lines in the EC development budget are allocated for expenditure on population and family planning projects in developing countries; what was the budget allocation in 1991, 1992 and 1993 for population and family planning projects; and what is the projected budget for 1994.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
One EC budget line, B7–5050 "Financial assistance to family planning programmes in developing countries" is expecially devoted to financing of population projects. In addition, another budget line B7–5047 "Mother and Child Health" includes family planning. A number of other EC budget lines for co-operation with developing countries also finance family planning projects, but it is not possible to disaggregate spending from those lines.
The allocation—in million ecu—for budget line B7–5050 was 1.5 in 1991; 2 in 1992; and 4 in 1993. Five million ecu has been allocated in 1994.