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Vol. 760 Thursday No. 113 5 March 2015 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT ORDER OF BUSINESS Questions Gender Equality: Developing Nations.........................................................................331 Sexual Violence against Girls and Women.................................................................333 Women in Sport............................................................................................................336 Lake District National Park Authority.......................................................................338 Women: Economic Empowerment Motion to Take Note....................................................................................................341 Transport: Accident Prevention Question for Short Debate............................................................................................414 Grand Committee Israel and Palestine...................................................................................................GC 101 Sport: Women in Rowing.........................................................................................GC 116 Employment Levels of Older People ......................................................................GC 132 HIV/AIDS..................................................................................................................GC 144 Women: Domestic and Mental Abuse Questions for Short Debate......................................................................................GC 158 £4·00 Lords wishing to be supplied with these Daily Reports should give notice to this effect to the Printed Paper Office. 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The first time a Member speaks to a new piece of parliamentary business, the following abbreviations are used to show their party affiliation: Abbreviation Party/Group CB Cross Bench Con Conservative Con Ind Conservative Independent DUP Democratic Unionist Party GP Green Party Ind Lab Independent Labour Ind LD Independent Liberal Democrat Ind SD Independent Social Democrat Lab Labour Lab Ind Labour Independent LD Liberal Democrat LD Ind Liberal Democrat Independent Non-afl Non-affiliated PC Plaid Cymru UKIP UK Independence Party UUP Ulster Unionist Party No party affiliation is given for Members serving the House in a formal capacity, the Lords spiritual, Members on leave of absence or Members who are otherwise disqualified from sitting in the House. © Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2015, this publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 331 Gender Equality: Developing Nations[5 MARCH 2015] Gender Equality: Developing Nations 332 Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (Lab): My Lords, as House of Lords the Minister knows, millions of marginalised girls are literally risking their lives to get a safe, high-quality Thursday, 5 March 2015. education. In Pakistan, the schooling of girls has been outlawed by the Taliban. In Afghanistan, girls have 11 am been attacked in their classroom and a schoolgirls’ bus was bombed. In Congo, girls have been raped by soldiers on their way to school and, as we know, 200 schoolgirls Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Norwich. in Nigeria were abducted by Boko Haram. Will the Minister tell the House how DfID is supporting the efforts of UNESCO and UNICEF to focus more Gender Equality: Developing Nations effectively on marginalised girls, in line with the aim Question that she just mentioned of leaving no one behind? 11.06 am Baroness Northover: My Lords, the noble Baroness Asked by Lord Loomba is quite right about the risks girls often take in seeking To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps an education. I hope that I can reassure her by saying they are taking to promote the education of girls that one of our focuses now is to try to ensure that the and young women and gender equality in developing most vulnerable girls and boys are able to get into nations. school safely, and not only to primary school but to progress on to secondary school. The very fact that they can get there is an indication that they have The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department actually succeeded in primary school. for International Development (Baroness Northover): My Lords, the United Kingdom has prioritised girls’ education as one of the four pillars of our strategic Baroness Hayman (CB): My Lords, I have recently vision for women and girls. Since 2010 the UK has returned from Sierra Leone where all the schools have supported more than 10 million girls and boys in been closed for almost nine months. This has had a primary and lower secondary schools. We are working devastating effect on the education of girls in particular, to ensure that gender equality is central to the post-2015 many of whom will never return to school now and development framework, with a dedicated gender goal, among whom there are very disturbing reports of targets throughout the framework and data broken increased rates of sexual exploitation, early marriage down by sex and age. and teenage pregnancy. Can the Minister assure me that Her Majesty’s Government will continue to support the outstanding efforts on the part of both UK Lord Loomba (LD): I thank my noble friend for government bodies and NGOs, which I was privileged that Answer. The education of girls and young women to witness in that country, not only right until the end and their equality is linked in one way or another to of the Ebola outbreak, which is far from finished, but the welfare of widows and how societies around the also in the longer term for rebuilding education and world treat them. I declare an interest as founder and health in that very needy country? chairman of the Loomba Foundation. An estimated 245 million widows and 500 million children around the world suffer injustice in silence. Baroness Northover: I thank the noble Baroness for More than 100 million widows live in poverty, struggling her tribute to the work that we are doing in Sierra to survive, and 1.5 million widows’ children die before Leone, and I also pay tribute to that work, which has their fifth birthday. been outstanding. We are trying to get Ebola down to Due to conflict, war, poverty, lack of adequate zero cases because that is crucial. We want to see the living standards, nutritious food, clean drinking water schools reopen, and at the moment we are focused on and healthcare, the number of widows is increasing in how to rebuild within Sierra Leone. However, she is the developing world. How will the Minister ensure quite right to talk about the special vulnerability of that the importance of the plight of widows is included women and girls. We are seeking to protect them and in the framework of the UN millennium development ensure that the risks that she has talked about do not goals for 2015-30? come to fruition. Baroness Northover: My Lords, I commend my Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con): My Lords, noble friend on his work in this extremely important perhaps I may take this opportunity to congratulate area. DFID supports a range of projects to assist the Government on getting these 5 million girls educated. widows—for example in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Andrew Mitchell was the first Secretary of State to We recognise how especially vulnerable widows can focus on it, along with Justine Greening and the rest of be. As my noble friend knows, we place great importance the DfID team, and it has been so effective. What are on gender equality and on the principle of leaving no the Government doing on early and forced marriage, one behind in the new framework which it is hoped one of the related topics here and which came up at will be agreed at the UN in September. This is clearly the very successful Girl Summit that took place in vital in seeking to eradicate extreme poverty. London last year? 333 Gender Equality: Developing Nations[LORDS] Sexual Violence 334 Baroness Northover: Again, I thank my noble friend “This is Abuse”, and the materials developed to support for her tribute to the work that has been done within better teaching of sex and relationship education in DfID. As she has said, last year we had the Girl schools. Summit which focused on both FGM and early and forced marriage. These are clear abuses of girls’ rights. Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD): My Lords, I commend We have already invested significantly in both areas the Government for introducing these new guidelines, and I trust that that will continue