Zimbabwe: Overseas Aid

Mr. Bone
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what aid was provided to Zimbabwe by the UK in 2006-07.

Hilary Benn
The UK is one of the largest bilateral donors of humanitarian support to Zimbabwe, supporting over 1.5 million of the poorest people. DFID spent £138.9 million bilaterally in Zimbabwe in financial years 2001-02 to 2005-06. Our funding prioritises HIV/AIDS, food insecurity and supporting orphans and vulnerable children. Our current programmes will help ensure that an additional 30,000 people receive anti-retroviral treatment, will provide health care for around 350,000 children, promote food security in both urban and rural areas and assist extremely vulnerable displaced people. The UK does not give direct funding to the Government of Zimbabwe. All DFID’s bilateral funding is channelled through NGOs and UN agencies, much of it programmed jointly with other donors. We do not believe in cutting direct assistance to poor Zimbabweans and thus punishing them further for their unaccountable government.

Through the Africa Conflict Prevention Pool, jointly funded by DFID, FCO and MOD, the UK supports civil society organisations to promote better governance and human rights. Allocations totalled £2 million in 2006-07 and will be £2.5 million in 2007-08. The British embassy in Harare also supports community groups with small grants (£800,000 per year). The UK contributions to multilateral aid to Zimbabwe (United Nations, European Commission, World Bank and others) totalled £37.5 million from 2000 to 2004 inclusive.