Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support his Department is providing to tackle global child malnutrition during the covid-19 pandemic.

Prevention and treatment of malnutrition remains a priority for the UK as part of our commitment to end the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children, particularly as malnourished people are likely to be more severely affected by COVID-19. The wider impacts of COVID-19 are also predicted to increase malnutrition across Africa and Asia in particular.

The Foreign Secretary has appointed the UK's first Special Envoy on Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Affairs to make sure malnutrition is averted in countries where food insecurity, conflict and COVID-19 have increased risk. The FCDO is continuing to deliver programmes to address malnutrition in countries such as Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and Ethiopia. We are also supporting UNICEF to maintain provision of treatment for child wasting and to adapt relevant services in light of the pandemic.