Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of global food insecurity needs in 2023 compared to (a) 2019 and (b) 2022.

FCDO monitors global food security, and we regularly assess food security needs and famine risk and its causes in low and low-middle income countries.

Globally, levels of hunger remain alarmingly high and increasing. In 2019, pre-pandemic, already over 3 billion world-wide were unable to afford sufficient food to be food secure and healthy. This figure has significantly increased in 2022, and is affecting people in highly indebted import-dependent developing countries and, more generally, the poorest affected most of all.

Sustainable food security remains a priority of our humanitarian and development work, and it is a key objective or our International Development Strategy.