Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how his Department's funding for (a) Somaliland and (b) Somalia will be spent in the 2022-23 financial year; and how much and what proportion of the funding will be spend on programmes to help tackle child wasting.

The UK is a major humanitarian donor to the East Africa region and UK-funded activities are making a difference and saving lives. Since 1 April 2022 the UK has allocated £52.8 million in humanitarian, health and nutrition support to alleviate the impact of drought and address the risk of famine in Somalia and Somaliland.

An estimated 1.8 million children under the age of 5 are affected by acute malnutrition in Somalia. UK support is providing emergency cash transfers, life-saving health and nutrition services and supplies, and supporting immediate access to food for people in rural communities. In early 2022 FCDO Ministers approved 'Better Lives'; a new multi-year health and nutrition programme in Somalia targeted at mothers and children.

Given the current fiscal context, the FCDO is not able to publish forward programme allocations in our Annual Report. The original allocations would not be accurate, and it would be misleading to publish detailed disaggregated budgets at this time.