Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the availability of food to people in Malawi.

Each year the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) assesses food availability in Malawi and publishes the official figure for those who are likely to be food insecure over the year. This year, at over 2.8m people, the figure is the highest for a decade. The UK was one of the first development partners to respond to Malawi’s international appeal for emergency aid in October 2015. The UK has now committed £14.5m, which includes provision of food for over 800,000 people, mass screening of up to 800,000 children to identify urgent nutritional support needs and specialist nutrition supplies for over 140,000 children and others suffering from acute malnutrition.

DFID continues to monitor the situation, through formal assessments, community consultation and ongoing engagement with partners. Maize prices are high and increasing and food availability on markets is unpredictable. The Government of Malawi has released maize from its reserves and has bought additional supplies from Zambia, although there are ongoing concerns about effectiveness of its distribution. DFID continues to work with partners to help Malawi break the cycle of recurrent food insecurity crises year after year.