Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on food security and nutrition globally.

Services to address food insecurity and malnutrition are part of DFID’s immediate response to COVID-19 in many of the countries where we work.

We are supporting UNICEF to make sure life-saving supplies to treat acute malnutrition continue to reach children at most risk across the Sahel as well as in Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen. We are also using programmes in agriculture, social protection and humanitarian assistance to tackle the factors driving COVID-19 induced food insecurity. We are a major funder of existing multilateral programmes in these areas. We have also committed £15 million to the World Food Programme’s recent urgent appeals.

In all cases we continue to put the poorest and most marginalised at the heart of our programmes to address the immediate and underlying causes of hunger and malnutrition, including in the face of COVID-19.