§ Richard OttawayTo ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what percentage of Sector Wide Approach (SWAp) funding was spent on family planning and reproductive health in the last year for which figures are available; and what the total funding in this sector was. [125658]
§ Hilary BennDFID supports country Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs) as a way to strengthen the social sector, pooling its financial resources with those of other donor agencies within the Government's overall budget. PRSs aim to coordinate Government led action with broad based participation, focused on delivering agreed outcomes. They also provide the basis332W for long-term strategy and sustained investment. We work through sector wide approaches and direct budget support as ways of supporting countries' PRSs.
The most recent data available from our information systems shows that in the financial year 2002–03, out of a total of £96 million spent by DFID on sector wide approaches, £31 million (32 per cent.) was spent on programmes that had reproductive health services as one of their target objectives. Our data systems do not allow us to identify specific expenditure on reproductive health services in previous years but recent changes will allow us to do so in future.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has an important role to play in tracking overall resources devoted to reproductive health. We are working across the board to strengthen countries' own systems for reporting against their poverty reduction targets and progress towards the millennium development goals, including through the UN Millennium Project. This includes reporting on reproductive health gains as a factor in improving health overall.
DFID's bilateral spending on reproductive health, including on HIV/AIDS, in 2002–03 was £270 million, up from around £40 million in 1997–98.