Anas Sarwar, Glasgow Central, Labour, poverty and vulnerability in urban areas.

Developing Countries: Urban Areas
International Development

Anas Sarwar (Glasgow Central, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how her Department assesses poverty and vulnerability in urban areas.

Alan Duncan (Minister of State, International Development; Rutland and Melton, Conservative)

DFID draws on a range of information sources, including national poverty surveys and consultations with poor people, to assess poverty and vulnerability in urban areas.

The Department is working with others to improve the tools to measure and understand urban poverty. For example in Vietnam we are supporting a special poverty survey for urban areas. In Bangladesh, DFID supports the Urban Partnership for Poverty Reduction Programme, which has developed a new way of measuring and monitoring urban poverty that includes people living in slums and informal settlements, who were previously excluded from the official statistics.

Anas Sarwar, Glasgow, Central, Labour, refugees in urban areas

Developing Countries: Urban Areas
International Development

Anas Sarwar (Glasgow Central, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment she has made of the vulnerabilities of refugees in urban areas.

Alan Duncan (Minister of State, International Development; Rutland and Melton, Conservative)

DFID recognises that, in developing countries, refugees in urban areas often face a wide range of risks which include threat of arrest and detention, exploitation, inadequate shelter, human trafficking, prohibition on movement and residence and lack of documentation. This is why DFID is providing support to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to deliver protection and assistance programmes in urban areas. DFID has also funded research, through the Norwegian Refugee Council, to identify the most effective approach for assisting urban refugees, on which humanitarian organisations can draw to improve their programmes of support.