Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she encouraged her G7 counterparts to commit a larger collective pledge to tackle global food insecurity than the $4.5 billion commitment announced by G7 Leaders on 28 June 2022.

At least 1.6 billion people are already affected by the current surge in food, energy and commodity prices and are impacted in their food security. While Putin continues his brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, the world's poorest people are inching closer to starvation. Rising food and fuel prices, and tightening financial conditions have led to vicious cycles, hitting the poorest hardest.

At the World Bank Spring Meetings, the UK and partners agreed the largest ever commitment to developing countries - $170 billion over the next 15 months, including $30 billion for food security, of which $12 billion is uncommitted. The UK is calling for the G7 and wider international community to step up support to tackle global food insecurity. One important element of the G7 response announced in June is the collective G7 commitment to provide USD 4.5 billion to mitigate the scale of the global food security crisis. We have been consistently calling on our interlocutors to maximise their support. We are also calling on Russia to end its illegal war; supporting UN efforts to unblock the export of Ukrainian grain and urging all countries to keep food trade flowing. We recognise that resources are limited, and our response must be as effective as possible. We are therefore also working to enhance the coherence of the international response, including through the G7 Global Alliance on Food Security.