Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support Somalia in preparing for future droughts.

Since the devastating famine in 2011, the UK has been helping families and communities in Somalia better cope with drought and other shocks by improving water supplies, agriculture, health care and promoting economic development. We have also invested in early warning systems to better identify when and where drought will hit hardest. This means that when help is needed it can be quicker and better targeted. All this work enabled us to play a leading role, along with Somali and international partners, in preventing famine during a major drought in 2017. It is also reducing significantly the impact of humanitarian disasters due to drought and other causes in Somalia in the future.