Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions her Department has had with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on the provision of humanitarian assistance, and in particular food, to Yemen.

DFID is in regular contact with our UN partners in Yemen who are delivering the humanitarian response. Most recently I spoke to the UN’s Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, on 14 June. We are also in regular contact with the World Food Programme (WFP) which delivers the majority of food aid into the country at Ministerial level with WFP’s Executive Director David Beasley.

The UN estimates that 17.8 million people in Yemen do not have reliable access to food and 8.4 million people face extreme food shortages. Our funding of £170 million to Yemen this financial year 2018/2019 includes support to meet the immediate food needs for 2.5 million Yemenis, and brings the total UK bilateral support to Yemen to over £570 million since 2015.