Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that the UK has a leadership role in tackling humanitarian situations in (a) Afghanistan and (b) other countries.

The UK has been at the forefront of efforts to address the situation, working with the UN Security Council, the G20, the G7 and countries in the region. The Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and other Ministers have all been working extensively with world leaders. In August, the Prime Minister announced that the UK would double its assistance for Afghanistan to £286 million this financial year, and we have now disbursed over £176 million. UK aid will support over 6.1 million people in Afghanistan and the region, providing emergency food, healthcare, shelter, water and protection.

The UK will co-host a high-level pledging summit with the UN next month to support the response to the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

In 2021, the UK brokered the first-ever G7 Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Crises Compact to tackle this challenge, securing £5 billion in humanitarian assistance and resilience strengthening, helping to address people's immediate food insecurity in the 42 countries one-step from famine. The UK has provided more than £80 million to respond to the crisis in northern Ethiopia, making us one of the largest bilateral donors to the conflict. Yemen remains one of the world's largest humanitarian crisis and aid operations. The UK will spend £87 million in aid to Yemen over the course of this financial year, with the UK contributing over £1 billion since the conflict began.