Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the effect of the Strengthening Humanitarian Preparedness in High Risk Contexts programme in directly mitigating the impact of Typhoon Hagupit.

DFID’s £20 million programme for strengthening humanitarian preparedness in high risk contexts has been a great success, with evidence showing that pre-positioned stocks are between three to fourteen times better value for money than responding after the event.

In the Philippines the programme has provided £450,000 support to the UN World Food Programme and UNICEF to preposition essential stocks and for preparedness training and national and local capacity development.

DFID’s total funding to the Philippines on humanitarian response, recovery and preparedness is currently £92.3 million.