Disabled Children

Mark Durkan
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) how much his Department has allocated to ensure that children with disabilities in developing countries receive an education in each of the last five years; and how much he plans to allocate for this purpose over the next three years;

(2) how much his Department has spent on ensuring schools in developing countries have adequate facilities to meet the needs of children with disabilities in each of the last three years.

Hilary Benn
DFID has committed some £2 billion to education over the last 10 years. In April, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pledged to increase this sum to £8.5 billion over the next 10 years, and last month the Prime Minister promised to increase DFID’s annual budget for education to £1 billion a year by 2010.

Most of this funding will be channelled to the Governments of developing countries to invest in long term, comprehensive investment plans for the education sector. We will be working with our partners to ensure that access to education by children with disabilities is part of these plans. For example, in India, DFID has supported the District Primary Education Programme, which promotes inclusive education and has helped states integrate disabled children into mainstream schools.

We will also continue to fund discrete civil society projects focused on children with disabilities. DFID has partnership agreements with a number of organisations that support disability-focused activities, such as World Vision, HelpAge International, Save the Children and VSO, among others. In addition, through our partner Action on Disability and Development, with whom we have a six-year Programme Partnership Agreement, we work to promote greater participation and inclusion of disabled people and their organisations in decision-making processes, particularly on partner Governments’ Poverty Reduction Strategies.

Mark Durkan
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate he has made of the percentage of children with disabilities in developing countries who receive an education.

Hilary Benn
The Global Monitoring Report, which we regard as the most reliable source of education data, estimates that only 2 per cent. of children with disabilities in developing countries are enrolled in school. Civil society organisations working in this field make similar estimates.

All children, including those with disabilities or living in difficult circumstances, should have equal access to a good-quality basic education. DFID is committed to working with the Governments of developing countries towards the education of all children, including those with disabilities.

DFID’s policy paper, ‘Reducing poverty by tackling social exclusion’, which has been deposited in the Libraries of the House, sets out our broad-based approach to tackling social exclusion across all sectors. The paper outlines how DFID will build on the work that is already under way and some practical actions that DFID is taking to tackle social exclusion and make a real difference to the lives of excluded people.