Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what her Department's long-term strategy is to support and protect the most vulnerable children in the Central African Republic; and what steps she plans to take to ensure that her Department has a long-term strategy for its engagement with that country over the next three years.

The crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) has left more than 2.7 million people in need of assistance and has severely affected children. Since 2013, DFID has provided £51 million to address urgent humanitarian needs in CAR and for CAR refugees. Our funds have enabled agencies to support children who have been separated from their families, provided services for girls and boys who have suffered sexual and gender-based violence, reduced malnutrition rates among children, and given children access to education and training.

DFID regularly reviews humanitarian priorities in order to ensure that UK Aid is directed where it is most needed, and works closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and wider international community to ensure that long-term strategies are in place to address long-running conflicts and humanitarian crises such as this.