By:Mohamed Duale Chief Editor of Horndiplomat Tweets MohamadDuale

Horndiplomat-Mp Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op) asked Harriett Baldwin Uk’s Minister of State for Africa questions related to Somaliland.

Stephen Doughty Question

Somaliland Diplomatic Service: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing enhanced consular services in Hargeisa, Somaliland?.

Minister Harriett Baldwin Answer

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s travel advice is clear that the British Embassy in Mogadishu is unable to provide consular assistance in Somalia, including in Hargeisa www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/somalia. However, we keep this decision under review.

Mp Stephen Doughty Question on Somaliland Overseas Aid:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much aid her Department provided aid to Somaliland which was delivered by multilateral agencies in each of the last three years.

Minister Harriett Baldwin Answer

DFID does not compile formal aid spend statistics broken down at sub-national level.

However, information on UK Government spend in Somalia through multilateral agencies, which includes spend in Somaliland, is shown in the table below for the last 3 calendar years, 2014 to 2016.

UK Official Development Assistance to Somalia, 2014 – 2016

2014 (£ thousand) 2015 (£ thousand) 2016 (£ thousand) Bilateral funding 123,791 121,828 151,715 Of which was channelled through multilateral agencies 56,769 41,788 57,614 Estimated core multilateral funding1 18,474 23,610 21,061

1. UK funding to the core budgets of multilateral organisations cannot be directly attributed to countries, instead, estimates are calculated on the basis of the spend of the multilaterals in countries and the UK’s share of core funding to multilateral organisations. Source: Statistics on International Development.

On April 4, large UK Parliamentary delegation arrives in Somaliland, The delegation led by MP Stephen Doughty accompanied by MP Matthew Offord, MP Liz Mcinnes.

The British MPs meets with the Somaliland Vice president, Political parties, Somaliland parliament, Somaliland National Electoral Commission, civil societies, Somaliland UK Diaspora and Somaliland youths.

Meanwhile, Mp Stephen Doughty is a leader of all Party Parliamentary Group for Somaliland, that cross-party support, Members of the UK Parliament inaugurated on 18 October 2016.

The creation of the new All Party Parliamentary Group is an important milestone in Somaliland’s engagement with the UK Parliament, as it replaces the previous APPG on Somaliland and Somalia with a new body dedicated solely to Somaliland.The APPG aims to highlight Somaliland’s achievements in building a peaceful and democratic state, and to draw attention to its important role in combating terrorism and piracy. It also hopes to build support for the UK’s continued assistance towards Somaliland’s development.

The new APPG is comprised of a coalition of MPs from a wide range of parties and backgrounds whose collective efforts will help in championing the cause of Somaliland. Somaliland hopes the new form will allow its representatives to brief MPS on issues of importance to Somaliland and help improve UK-Somaliland relations.

By: Mohamed Duale Chief Editor of Horndiplomat Tweets MohamadDuale

SOURCE:HORNDIPLOMAT

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