§ Sir Alastair GoodladTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what initiatives are currently being pursued by her Department consequent on the Fourth World Conference on Women Platform for Action agreed in Beijing in 1995; in which countries; and at what cost. [32088]
§ Clare ShortWe are fully committed to the implementation of the Platform for Action agreed at the Fourth World Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995. We are pursuing numerous initiatives in support of this, and are systematically incorporating gender concerns across the broad spectrum of work we support throughout the developing world. As is made clear in the White Paper on International Development, we are clear that there is a direct link between gender inequality and world poverty and that advancing the education of girls and the position of women is a precondition of development. We are pursuing a twin-track approach, addressing gender inequalities as an integral part of all our development activities, as well as continuing to support specific and focused initiatives to enhance women's empowerment, both in our own programmes and in our support to relevant national and multilateral organisations.
Over the past three years the proportion of bilateral commitments and expenditure which explicitly include gender concerns have increased by more than 50 per cent. In 1996–97 this amounted to expenditure of £155 million and a commitment of £310 million across a broad range of sectors, within which explicit attention is being paid to women's needs and gender equality. We expect this figure to continue to rise. We are also playing a leading role in the international community in building a global commitment to the Beijing Platform for Action. The facilitation of a renewed commitment among EU Member States and the European Commission to the implementation of the Beijing Platform is a priority of our current EU Presidency.