To ask Her Majesty's Government how much aid they provided to Pakistan over the past year; and what proportion of this aid was used to support efforts to end child abduction, forced conversion and illegal marriages.
Answered on
11 March 2019
The UK provided £282m to Pakistan for the financial year 2018/19. Under the AAWAZ I programme (which ended in May 2018) around £400,000 was spent on preventing forced and early marriages. Some of these beneficiaries may also have been affected by forced conversion or child abduction. Under new programming, we plan to spend around £1.88 million in preventing early and forced marriages. This includes enactment of the policy and legislative framework and capacity building support of key government institutions.