Tag: international aid

International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has announced which charities and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) have received UK aid funding to help fight coronavirus in the developing world.

A total of 40 charities and NGOs will receive funding from the Department for International Development’s (DFID) £20 million humanitarian support package, announced last month, or the £100 million global hygiene partnership with Unilever, unveiled in March.

From 18 May 2020, up to £30 million of new grants will also be made available to small and medium-sized UK charities through the next round of the UK Aid Direct programme. Each charity will be able to bid for a grant up to £4 million for programmes that focus on tackling the coronavirus crisis.

The Small Charities Challenge Fund (SCCF) is also open for grants of up to £50,000 for the very best small British development charities tackling coronavirus.

Health experts have identified the weakness of developing countries’ healthcare systems as one of the biggest risks to the global spread of the virus. They have also warned that if coronavirus is left to spread in developing countries, this could lead to the virus re-emerging in the UK and put further pressure on our NHS.

DFID is therefore rapidly reprioritising its programmes around the world to better tackle the pandemic. Many of these in-country programmes are currently run directly by civil society organisations, including charities and NGOs.

The UK is also working with the United Nations to ensure the significant UK aid support, pledged in recent weeks, is passed on to its partner charities and NGOs as quickly as possible. Plan International is also receiving support through UNICEF’s Education Cannot Wait fund which has provided £5m of UK aid to support over 11.5 million children in some of the poorest and most disadvantaged areas of the globe. The UK also pledged £50 million as part of last month’s announcement to the International Committee of the Red Cross and British Red Cross.

International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, said: “This pandemic is having a devastating impact on people all over the world and I am very grateful to charities and NGOs for their vital work to keep people safe.

“These organisations are often best placed to help those most at risk and are crucial to slowing the pandemic’s spread in the developing world. This in turn helps reduce the risk of future waves of infection globally, which could otherwise come to the UK.”

British charities, such as Humanity & Inclusion, Action Against Hunger, CARE and Christian Aid, have received funding from DFID’s £20 million humanitarian package, which will provide healthcare, water and sanitation, food and shelter to meet the basic needs of some of the world’s most vulnerable people in Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia and Africa’s Sahel region.

More than £24 million has also been allocated from DFID’s £100 million partnership with Unilever, one of the largest producers of soap in the world, to Action Aid, PSI, WaterAid, International Rescue Committee, World Vision, the African Medical and Research Foundation and Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor.

Ms Trevelyan recently wrote to suppliers, including British charities and NGOs, to set out the DFID support available to them amid fears over the pandemic’s impact on their operations. This included bringing forward payments and help with the ongoing costs of delivering life-saving programmes.

Helen Thompson, CARE International UK’s Head of Humanitarian Programme, said: “With DFID’s support, CARE will work with communities in conflict-affected regions of Niger, Mali and Chad to prevent the spread of coronavirus and deal with the knock-on impacts of lockdown, particularly on women and girls.

“From responses such as the West Africa and DRC Ebola crises, we know that strong community engagement and risk messaging is essential to stop the spread of disease. DFID’s support will help us rapidly scale up work at community level with trusted messengers.”

UK aid will protect the British public and help prevent a second wave of coronavirus coming to the UK by slowing its spread in the most vulnerable countries, International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan announced yesterday.

A package of £200 million will back UK charities and international organisations to help reduce mass infections in developing countries which often lack the healthcare systems to track and halt the virus. Today’s announcement brings the total amount of UK aid committed to the global fight against coronavirus to £744 million, making the UK one of the biggest donors to the international response.

Health experts have identified the weakness of developing countries’ healthcare systems as one of the biggest risks to the global spread of the virus. They have also warned that if coronavirus is left to spread in developing countries, this could lead to the virus re-emerging in the UK later in the year and put further pressure on our NHS.

The new UK aid announced today includes £130 million for UN agencies in response to their urgent appeal for support. Of this, £65 million will go to the World Health Organization (WHO) which is coordinating international efforts to end the pandemic sooner.

UK funding for the WHO will help provide more accurate assessments of how the pandemic is progressing around the world, allowing support to be targeted where it will save the most lives and stop the outbreak sooner, and helping countries respond to the virus.

The pandemic is particularly dangerous for countries with weak health systems who are already struggling to fight preventable diseases. In Yemen, 80 per cent of the population are already in need of humanitarian assistance and only about 50 per cent of health facilities are operational. In Asia, Bangladesh hosts 850,000 Rohingya refugees, many in crowded and unsanitary camps where disease could take hold rapidly.

These countries will be hard hit by lockdowns and disruptions to the supply of goods and services. UK aid will help to mitigate these conditions and support those already living in desperate situations.

The funding will also help developing countries to rapidly identify and care for patients with symptoms in order to limit human-to-human transmission. Our investment will help install new hand-washing stations and isolation and treatment centres in refugee camps, and increase access to clean water for those living in areas of armed conflict.

International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: “While our brilliant doctors and nurses fight coronavirus at home, we’re deploying British expertise and funding around the world to prevent a second deadly wave reaching the UK.

“Coronavirus does not respect country borders so our ability to protect the British public will only be effective if we strengthen the healthcare systems of vulnerable developing countries too.

Our new UK aid support will help stop the virus from infecting millions of people in the poorest countries, meaning we can end this global pandemic sooner and prevent future waves of infection coming to the UK.”

A further £50 million of the £200 million package will support the Red Cross in difficult to reach areas such as those suffering from armed conflict.

A final £20 million will go to NGOs, including UK charities which are using British expertise and experience to deal with coronavirus.

Pioneering British scientists and researchers like those at Oxford University and at Mologic, based in Bedford, are already at the forefront of the global race to find a coronavirus vaccine and stop its spread, including within the UK.

The UK has already committed £250 million of aid to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to rapidly develop a coronavirus vaccine, the biggest donation of any country. Thanks to this investment, future vaccines will be made available at the lowest possible price to the NHS and other countries’ healthcare systems.

The announcement follows the Prime Minister’s call to world leaders to work together to create a vaccine as quickly as possible and make it available to anyone who needs it.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization said: “COVID-19 has demonstrated it has no regard for borders, ethnicities, ideologies or the size of a country’s economy.

“The United Kingdom’s generous contribution is a strong statement that this is a global threat that demands a global response. WHO is deeply grateful to the government and people of the United Kingdom for their generous contribution.

“We are all in this together, which means protecting health around the world will help to protect the health of people in the UK.”

UK aid support for the WHO will not only help developing countries but will also benefit the UK through further research into the virus and improved international coordination.

Alexander Mattheou, Executive Director of International for the British Red Cross, said: “The scale of this grant to the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement (including the IFRC and ICRC) shows the gravity of the challenge ahead of us. The virus may not discriminate, but it hits vulnerable communities – those lacking healthcare, sanitation and food – the hardest.

“The British Red Cross, part of the global Red Cross Movement, is responding right now here in the UK, including supporting our NHS. However at the end of the day, the global response will only be as effective as the weakest health system. We must support the most vulnerable countries now as a part of an effort to keep us all safe.

“The pandemic also creates other challenges – from women and girls who become more vulnerable to abuse, to people experiencing chronic hunger who lose access to food support, to camps and hospitals who have critical supplies cut off.

“The COVID-19 response must include the immediate and the secondary impacts of the pandemic.”