To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to fund churches running social action programmes in the Middle East.
Answered on
24 February 2017
All our support in the Middle East is based on an assessment of need to ensure that vulnerable people are not discriminated against on any grounds, including religion. In the Middle East our support is focused on partners who are operating at significant scale and who have a track record of delivering aid at scale in complex situations. We do not directly fund small organisations such as churches.
Faith-based organisations are eligible to access funding mechanisms to which DFID is a major contributor, such as the Humanitarian Pooled Funds in Iraq and Syria, and we encourage them to do so. We invite a range of NGOs, including Christian organisations, to meet us regularly at DFID to exchange views and discuss the situation in the region.