page_title: Justine Greening
section_title: International Development Secretary
hierarchical_section_title: Justine Greening / Parliamentary career / International Development Secretary
caption_attribution_description: UK Secretary of State for International Development Justine Greening meets the actor Geena Davis at the MDG Countdown event, New York. Davis spoke in her capacity as UN Special Envoy on girls and women in the field of technology. Picture: Marisol Grandon/Department for International Development
context_page_description: Justine Greening is a British former politician who served as Secretary of State for Education from 2016 to 2018 and as the Member of Parliament for Putney from 2005 to 2019. While still a member of the Conservative Party, Greening had the Conservative whip removed on 3 September 2019 and sat as an independent MP after that.
  Greening served in the Cameron Government as Economic Secretary to the Treasury and Secretary of State for Transport, prior to being appointed Secretary of State for International Development in September 2012. From 14 July 2016 to 8 January 2018, she served as Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities in the May Government. She resigned as Education Secretary in the January 2018 Cabinet reshuffle. On 3 September 2019, Greening announced she would not be standing as a Conservative at the next general election and subsequently had the whip withdrawn.
context_section_description: On 4 September 2012, she was replaced by Patrick McLoughlin at the Department for Transport and became Secretary of State for International Development. The move was strongly criticised by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson who believed it was linked to her opposition to a third runway at Heathrow. As Secretary of State for International Development, Greening became a member of the National Security Council.
  Whilst she was in the role of International Development Secretary, the UK became the first G8 country to meet the commitment to spend 0.7% of its gross national income on international development, meeting the UN official development assistance target subsequently legislating for this. Greening led the UK response to international natural disasters such as Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013 and the Nepal earthquake in 2015.
  In 2014, Greening held the first-ever Girl Summit in London, which saw leaders and young people from all over the world come together to work to help combat female genital mutilation and early and forced marriage.  
  Greening led the UK response to the Syria crisis including the UK work in Lebanon and Jordan to support local economies to provide work for refugees as well as local people. Greening pioneered the “No Lost Generation” initiative with then UNHCR boss Antonio Guterres and UNICEF to enable Syrian refugee children to still continue their education.
  Greening led the international response to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2014-2015, committing a £230 million aid package including support for 700 treatment beds and funding for children orphaned by the crisis. Greening stated that children would not be “left behind once Ebola was defeated.” “Operation Gritrock” was the first-ever UK military campaign led by DFID, and was also supported by NHS personnel. 
  In 2015, Greening announced a new economic empowerment programme for women at the Global Goals Summit and campaigned successfully for Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality to be included amongst the UN Sustainable Development goals during international negotiations.  
  Following an initiative by Greening, Ban Ki Moon, then UN Secretary General, announced in 2016 the creation of the UN’s first high-level panel on women’s economic empowerment.  Greening joined other founding panel members including Jim Kim, the then President of the World Bank, and Christine Lagarde, the then head of the International Monetary Fund, to make recommendations on how to support the realisation of women’s economic potential around the world.  
  During the refugee crisis, Greening oversaw £1 billion pounds of aid spending to support Syrian refugees with water, food, shelter and medical care.  Greening further pressured UK businesses and other countries to “put their hands in their pockets” to help before warning the European migrant crisis could last 20 years if nothing was done.  Greening argued during negotiations for the Paris Climate Change Agreement that climate change would continue to be a root cause of refugee migration and launched an insurance scheme to help developing nations deal with natural disasters caused by climate change.
caption: Secretary of State Greening meets actress Geena Davis at the Millennium Development Goals Countdown event at the Ford Foundation Building (24 September 2013)
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