Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what increases they intend to make in funding to support international development responses to the potential secondary impacts of COVID-19.

We are taking decisive and co-ordinated action based on the science and evidence, mitigating COVID-19’s primary and secondary impacts, in support of the poorest and most vulnerable.

We are using UK aid and British expertise to provide leadership internationally. DFID has pledged up to £744 million of UK aid to support the global effort to combat COVID-19. This includes providing up to £150 million to the International Monetary Fund’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust to support vulnerable economies. In addition, DFID is also adapting its programmes across its country network. This will support both the immediate response including secondary impacts, and in due course the longer-term recovery. The UK has also pledged £1.65 billion to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to stop the spread of deadly infectious diseases by vaccinating up to 75 million children and strengthening health systems to help them deal with the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases.

We are also working closely with other international partners to support a holistic response. For example, the Secretary of State has been speaking regularly to other Development Ministers including those from G7 countries, the Nordics, Netherlands and Australia. She has established a series of ongoing informal meetings with them, jointly chaired with Canada, to work together on the challenges of COVID-19 to international development.