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Select committee: International Development Committee

Second report - Food insecurity

HC 504 Published 1 July 2022

International Development Committee Food insecurity Report on parliament.uk ↗

At a glance3 recommendations · Government response published 20 October 2022 (deadline 1 September 2022)

The government's response

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government agrees with the Committee's conclusion that the world faces a catastrophic hunger crisis, and responds to its recommendations by marking each as accepted or partially accepted.

  • On publishing a comprehensive strategy to address food insecurity, the government "Partially Accept[s]". It points to the FCDO's "comprehensive action plan" and offers to make the latest full version available to the Committee "on request".
  • It accepts the recommendation to increase humanitarian funding for food assistance, stating that it "is intending to increase our humanitarian funding to £3 billion over the next 3 years" as set out in the international development strategy.
  • On empowering the Global Alliance for Food Security, it "Partially Accept[s]". It says the Alliance "is not yet at a stage of securing the provision, delivery and distribution of food assistance" and that "GAFS must not duplicate processes that already work well".
  • It accepts the recommendation to support Ukraine's food exports, citing £10m of support to Ukrainian Railways to help repair bridges and other rail infrastructure and facilitate grain exports.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

Sources

Recommendations and conclusions 3

  1. 16
    publish a comprehensive strategy setting out its plan to address food insecurity; and a) increase... Recommendation · addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Recommendation (the committee's words)
    publish a comprehensive strategy setting out its plan to address food insecurity; and a) increase humanitarian funding for food assistance programmes to reflect increased global food and fuel costs and to meet need. b) To promote sustainable agriculture, the Government must increase support to agricultural development programmes in middle-and-lower-income
  2. 17
    countries. Recommendation · addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Recommendation (the committee's words)
    countries. The Government must work with international partners to:
  3. 18
    empower the Global Alliance for Food Security to develop international solutions to regional food security... Recommendation · addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Recommendation (the committee's words)
    empower the Global Alliance for Food Security to develop international solutions to regional food security challenges. That should include a) securing the provision, delivery and distribution of food assistance to countries in need in order to avert famine. Such initiatives should prioritise countries with communities classed on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification as in Phase 3 (Crisis) or above; and support Ukraine to transport its food produce for both internal consumption and international export to help feed in-need communities. b) Such support should include the supply of protective equipment and transport vehicles to Ukraine and participation in multilateral initiatives to facilitate food exports by Ukraine. Food insecurity 13 Food insecurity classifications Food insecurity is measured by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and Cadre Harmonisé (CH) framework. The IPC is used in around 30 countries and the CH is used in 18 countries. The two measures are “very close to each other and give comparable figures of acute food insecurity.” The five-phase classification, as shown in 71 the table below, “is the same though there are a few differences pertaining to the use of 72 certain indicators, classification of famine and estimation of humanitarian assistance.” The IPC/CH classifications were used to determine the number of people in Phase 3 ‘Crisis’ 73 or worse (Phases 4 and 5) in each country for the map included in the Report. Table 2: IPC acute food insecurity reference table Phase Phase name Phase description number 1 Minimal/None Households are able to meet essential food and non-food needs without engaging in atypical and unsustainable strategies to access food and income. 2 Stressed Households have minimally adequate food consumption but are unable to afford some essential non-food expenditures without engaging in stress- coping strategies. 3 Crisis Households either have food consumption gaps that are reflected by high or