Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their response to the state of disaster declared due to the drought and resultant food shortages in Malawi, and whether they plan to provide additional aid to Malawi.

Malawi, like its Southern African neighbours, faces particularly high food shortages this year partly because of the El Nino drought. The UK has just made a £3 million contribution to the World Food Programme, primarily to import and distribute around 3,000 tonnes of food and provide cash transfers, reaching around 300,000 of the least food secure. This contribution compliments on-going efforts by the UK Government to strengthen the resilience of the Malawian people, to future climate shocks, including through contributing to sovereign drought insurance.