Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to build capacity in countries facing a food crisis.

DFID invests in long-term planning, preventative programmes and putting systems in place to build the capacity of countries at risk of food insecurity. Early warning mechanisms and resilience systems put in place with DFID support since 2010/11 have strengthened the response to the food crisis across the Horn of Africa this year. For example, with DFID support the response in Somalia has mobilised much earlier this year compared to 2010; in Kenya the Hunger Safety Nets Programme has enabled emergency support to be delivered at scale to drought affected households much quicker than in previous crises.