Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support frontline organisations in the global south which are tackling the (a) spread and (b) consequences of the covid-19 outbreak.

The UK is using our foreign aid budget and British expertise to stop the spread of the global coronavirus outbreak, find a vaccine and save lives around the world. We have so far pledged £744milion of UK aid to help end this pandemic as quickly as possible.

DFID is engaging with supply partners to address the challenges posed to them and their projects by COVID-19. We will work collaboratively with supply partners to find pragmatic solutions to support both our partners and continuation of our programmes where appropriate.

The COVID-19 response will continue to develop rapidly and we are assessing and monitoring the overall financial health of supply partners to identify organisations we believe are at risk due to COVID-19.

We will deliver a comprehensive COVID-19 response through programming to support the global health and economic response, funding for vaccine development, preparing for the recovery phase and leadership within the international community.