Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to build food security capacity in countries at risk of food crisis.

Through its recent programme on improving agricultural and rural statistics, DFID has supported capacity building to collect statistics on food and agriculture in 40 African and 20 Asian-Pacific countries, including many at risk of food crises.

In Africa, where chronic hunger and the risk of food security crisis are greatest, DFID is strengthening capacity of the Southern Africa Development Community and its 16 member governments to conduct vulnerability assessments and analyses, which are used to improve the effectiveness of the response to acute food insecurity.

At the global level, DFID supported the development of the Food Insecurity Experience Scale perceptions survey which is now the primary way to monitor progress on the Sustainable Development Goal to end hunger. DFID programmes such as the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme use this to measure the impact of interventions, and give the poorest and most vulnerable a voice.