Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to support people's livelihoods in Somalia, including supporting local markets and building the resilience of communities affected by drought.

The UK is one of Somalia's four largest donors, contributing over £71 million in 2020/21, including £35 million of humanitarian aid. Somalia is the country worst-affected by drought in the Horn of Africa. Recurrent climate shocks and conflicts also continue to drive humanitarian needs in Somalia. Learning the lessons on drought response from 2017, the UK has acted early: we recently announced an additional £13.5 million of support for drought response in Somalia. Our funding will help both to meet immediate needs and to strengthen longer-term resilience to climatic shocks. UK early assistance, and our provision of cash-based support, avoid the selling of productive assets, protect livelihoods and support market functioning. The UK's Special Envoy for Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Affairs visited Somalia in early February to assess the situation, and called for all stakeholders to do more in response to the crisis.

The UK is also delivering a £38 million Supporting Inclusive Growth in Somalia (SIGS) programme. This focuses on financial sector development and investment system strengthening, and on the inclusive development of Micro-Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in three to four key sectors to mitigate climate and conflict risk. It has also provided an immediate response to Covid-19 and is a programming vehicle to advance the UK's agenda on debt relief. SIGS is working towards realising the following outcome targets for Somalia: leveraging up to £60 million in investment, delivering over £30 million in increased incomes, and creating up to 20,000 jobs including for women and youth.