Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people they estimate are beneficiaries of UK contributions to World Food Programme projects; what assessment they have made of the impact of the reduction in global economies on those programmes; and what assessment they have made of the likelihood that current contribution levels will be maintained.

UK contributions constitute 8.7% of the overall contributions and proportionally, UK has supported 7.5 million people (in 2019).

World Food Programme (WFP) is raising awareness on the secondary impacts and economic implications of COVID-19, likely to result in a massive reduction of vulnerable households' purchasing power, compromising their access to food.

So far WFP has not seen any reduction in contributions due to COVID-19. Their global forecast for 2020 remains at 7.7 billion USD, down just slightly from the 8 billion in USD received in 2019. If there is an impact, it might be seen in 2021. As of 30 August 2020, the UK was the third largest Government donor to the WFP, with total contributions of 274.5 million USD.

The UK will be making further contributions to WFP during the remainder of the year, with these decisions being taken in consideration of country needs and available resources. The appointment of the UK famine envoy is a further sign of our commitment to preventing famine and eradicating hunger and we will work closely with WFP to ensure that the organisation receives the financial support needed to tackle the current and future challenge.