Recommendation 5

HM Government Deferred

Government response – Partially Agree 18. The UK remains committed to working at all levels to promote stabilisation and peacebuilding. The Government recognises that the drivers of acute food insecurity are complex, often involving multiple and interrelated factors arising from armed conflict and insecurity, economic shocks and weather extremes. We agree that food insecurity is a factor driving conflict and that conflict drives food insecurity. 19. We are proactively addressing conflict-induced hunger. The UK uses its seat at the UN Security Council to champion and implement Resolution 2417 which enables reporting and early warnings when parties to conflict cause food insecurity and famine risk. We used our position to urge swift action when such warnings have been issued last year on Gaza and Sudan. The UK has produced a Legal Handbook on the international rules that play a role in avoiding and addressing food insecurity in armed conflict to promote understanding and improve compliance with international humanitarian law. 20. Alongside diplomatic levers, our bilateral peacebuilding, human rights and wider development programme work helps to address the root causes of violence and the environments where conflicts are more likely to take place. To support our programme work, UK expertise works across the world to provide analysis and advice on preventing the spread and escalation of conflict risks, working closely across Government, civil society and the international community. 21. As well as bilateral programmes, the UK is one of the biggest contributors to the UN Peacebuilding Fund, the primary mechanism supporting UN prevention and peacebuilding activity in over 40 countries including Sudan, South Sudan, West Africa, and the Sahel. The UK has contributed over £175 million since the inception of the fund in 2006, including £5 million in 2024/2025. UK Government spending and the impact of reductions in funding Conclusions and recommendations (6–8) The handling of the merger of DFID with the FCO, and that of the subsequent sudden and drastic cuts in programme spending, was very damaging for the UK’s efforts toward SDG2. Not only did it damage the UK’s reputation as a leader and innovator toward the goal of ending hunger and malnutrition but reduced the support to millions of people around the world who depended on these programmes. The reduction of ODA from 0.5% to 0.3% of GNI in February 2025 could not have come at a worse time, with cuts in donor spending across Europe and in the United States of America and ever-increasing need. If the Government fails to learn the lessons from the handling of the cuts in 2020, the misery inflicted on millions will be incalculable, the progress that has been made will stall, and the damage to the UK’s reputation will be all but impossible to reverse. We urge the Government to reconsider the reduction in Official Development Assistance (Recommendation 6) Government Response – Disagree 22. At this time of profound change, with conflicts overseas undermining security and prosperity at home, the Prime Minister has taken the decision to increase spending on defence to 2.5% of GDP from 2027, funded by reducing ODA to 0.3% of GNI and reinvesting it into defence. Protecting our national security is the first duty of any government. 23. We have learned lessons from previous reductions, including by gradually reducing the ODA budget to 0.3% of GNI in 2027 to help smooth the transition and by carefully considering the significant shifts that will be required to deliver reductions over the course of the Spending Review. 24. The decision to reduce the ODA budget was a necessary one that reflects the evolving nature of the threats we face, and the strategic shifts required to meet them, while maintaining economic stability. We therefore disagree with this recommendation. 25. We remain committed to returning to spending 0.7% of GNI on ODA when fiscal circumstances allow. We recommend that the FCDO put measures in place to ensure that all Official Development Assistance committed to nutrition and food security related programming is predictable and long term, with better safeguards against, and warnings of, any changes to funding agreements with delivery partners. We request the Government outline clearly in their response how it intends to ensure future programmes keep to these standards, and to send us an update on the detail of the implementation measures before the summer Parliamentary recess. (Recommendation 7) Government Response: Partially Agree 26. We agree about the value of predictable and long-term programming. At the Spring Statement it was confirmed that the FCDO will no longer be required to adjust its budgets to hit a calendar year ODA spending commitment. This means the FCDO will no longer be automatically exposed to the volatility of fluctuations in GNI or spending by other government departments, thereby providing the FCDO’s ODA budget greater certainty and predict