Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the announcement of 24 June 2022 entitled PM pledges new support for countries on the food security frontline, what steps she (a) has taken and (b) plans to take to help ensure that the £372 million food security commitment is disbursed urgently to countries in need.

Putin's illegal, unprovoked and premeditated invasion of Ukraine is leading to further steep price rises in commodity markets and is massively exacerbating the disastrous impacts we are now seeing to global food security. Rising food and fuel prices and tightening financial conditions have led to vicious cycles hitting the poorest hardest. All must help to mitigate this unprecedented crisis.

About half of the UK's new £372 million commitment will fund immediate life-saving food assistance delivered through the World Food Programme (£130 million), support an urgent response to seven countries at acute famine risk through the Central Emergency Response Fund (£52 million), and leverage a Nutrition Match Fund (£2 million), to attract national spending and other donors support on addressing wasting in priority countries. Other elements are supporting governments and the private sector to address the food security crisis and build resilience and more sustainable food security in the most affected developing countries in the medium term. This is through various mechanisms, with disbursements across the three years 2022-24. Longer-term commitments include £17.7 million through the FCDO's Green Growth Centre of Expertise to improve the effective use of fertiliser and increase food production, £37 million for the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and £133 million for research and development partnerships with world-leading agricultural and scientific organisations to improve food security.