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Written question asked by Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Conservative) on Thursday, 19 June 2025, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 3 July 2025. It was answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Labour) on Monday, 30 June 2025 on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Food Aid: Finance

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase humanitarian funding for food assistance programmes in the light of the increase in the number of people facing catastrophic hunger.

Answer

The UK is deeply concerned by rising levels of acute food insecurity and catastrophic hunger. We are a key government donor to the World Food Programme (WFP); in 2024 we contributed over $600 million to WFP initiatives, including in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Sudan, South Sudan and Haiti.

We are also driving international action to scale-up Pre-Arranged Finance, making sure finance reaches the most vulnerable and hardest hit ahead of, or quickly after, a disaster strikes. This includes supporting vulnerable countries and humanitarian agencies to respond to harvest failures caused by drought. We recently supported anticipatory drought insurance for WFP in Syria, which paid out $7.7 million for emergency assistance.

However, simply responding to crises is not a long-term solution, and we are working with partners to improve early warning systems, to act ahead of shocks and invest in strengthening countries' resilience to food crises in the longer-term.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL8636
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Finance Food aid
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk