Oral Answers to Questions Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for International Development
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh
Main Page: Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Scottish National Party - Ochil and South Perthshire)Department Debates - View all Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh's debates with the Department for International Development
(7 years, 7 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Ms Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Ochil and South Perthshire) (SNP)
May I ask the Secretary of State what work her Department is doing with the international community to help to ensure that it is better able to provide a more urgent early response to food crises, to avoid mass loss of life?
Priti Patel
The hon. Lady is absolutely right to raise that point. What we are seeing is totally unprecedented. To witness the prospect of four famines in 2017 is simply horrific for all of us. There is more that can be done, and the UK is working with others to try to build greater capacity and resilience in those countries so that we do not reach crisis points, as we have done this year, where international appeals have to come together and plead with people to give money. The long-term strategy has to be to build greater resilience. That has worked in countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya in the past.