The International Development Committee Inquiry on the UK’s development partnership with Nigeria

Written evidence submitted by the UN World Food Programme Nigeria

Introduction

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to bring pathways to peace, production and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disaster and impact of climate change. In 2024, WFP supported over 2 million people with resilience integrated life-saving food assistance in Nigeria, 50 percent of them women and girls.

Context

1. Nigeria achieved lower-middle-income status in 2014 and is one of Africa’s largest economies. However, in 2024 Nigeria was ranked 157 of 189 countries in the Human Development Index[1]. Nationally, 50 percent of the population (116 million people) live below the poverty line, rising to 65 percent in the northeastern region affected by conflict. In 2025, the number of acutely and severely food insecure people rose to 31 million people nationwide, including 5 million people in the northeast, and 5 million people in the northwest in the Integrated Food Security Phase (IPC) Phases 3 (Crisis) and 4 (Emergency)[2] during the June to August lean season. Despite needs having increased, the country has seen a decline in UK bilateral ODA since 2019 from GBP 257m to 100m in 2023, alongside a decline in the percentage safeguarded for humanitarian assistance from GBP 78m to 8m[3]. WFP, for example, requires GBP 96 million to cover needs until the end of February 2026.

2. Nigeria plays an outsize role as a linchpin of regional stability in West Africa, but a resurgence of Boko Haram has shaken the northeastern states in recent months. Islamic extremists have repeatedly overrun military outposts, mined roads with bombs and raided civilian communities, raising fears of a possible return to peak conflict era. In the first six months of 2025, at least 1,966 people across the northern states were killed during attacks by insurgents, over two-thirds of them by bandits now operating in the northwest. Over 3 million people are internally displaced in these three states, most of them women and children.

3.                                     The increasing violence by armed insurgent groups, and persistently high inflation is shattering lives and livelihoods, compounding vulnerabilities and sustaining high food needs. During the 2025 lean season, 30.8 million people are facing acute food insecurity and over 17 million children are malnourished. These are the highest rates in Africa. The insecurity and military counter-operations concentrated in the northern region continue to limit humanitarian and agricultural activities in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states in northeast Nigeria. Farming communities are under threat, unable to access farmlands or engage in other economic activity.

4. WFP has supported with the Nigerian government to provide emergency food and nutrition assistance since 2016 and is currently implementing a five-year Country Strategic Plan (2023-2027) that aims to deliver emergency food assistance and support recovery and resilience strengthening efforts for vulnerable people and communities. WFP’s strategy for lasting solutions is aligned with national priorities while enhancing the domestic capacity for Government-led solutions.

5. In 2025, FCDO was the only donor stepping up and increasing support to WFP Nigeria during an unprecedented funding crisis affecting the humanitarian system globally. With USD 21 million received in contributions for emergency food assistance, resilience and UNHAS, FCDO has become WFP Nigeria’s top donor. However, funding trends still show a gradual decrease in UK funding to WFP Nigeria over time, dropping from USD 81 million (GBP 60) in 2018 to USD 21 million (GBP 15) today.

6. In 2025, WFP has scaled emergency lean season food assistance to 1.3 million people in July 2025 (instead of 1.6 million), due to funding constraints. The assistance was provided for one month only (July) after which WFP continued scaling down the lean season caseload to 900,000 in August. In July, WFP has also suspended the delivery of nutrition commodities to 150 health clinics, leaving 300,000 children without MAM prevention and treatment activities.

7. Failure to step up and maintain response efforts in the Northeast and Northwest can give way to the armed groups, increasing attacks in Abuja, Lagos and eventually overseas. The provision of humanitarian food assistance has been a key contributing factor to stability and containment of the security threat, that Nigerians do not migrate to other countries and that the most vulnerable, in particular our beneficiaries in camps, do not join armed insurgent groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP.

What key lessons can the UK Government learn from its development engagement with Nigeria in recent years?

8. The UK’s partnership with WFP Nigeria offers valuable insights that can shape future UK priorities in development cooperation with Nigeria. Humanitarian aid alone cannot sustainably resolve the extreme challenges faced in the northeast of Nigeria. As part of a broader set of development interventions, a “Humanitarian Food System Solutions approach” can strengthen resilience and contribute to greater peace and stability.  When peaceful conditions exist, buying locally, linking cash and e-vouchers to local markets, can support local agricultural production and enhance nutrition for the most vulnerable populations.

9. Evidence from WFP's study with partners (AFDB and IFPRI) on 'Investing in Innovative Solutions for Food Systems in Challenging Contexts' which will be published in late 2025[4], suggests that this food systems approach offers a promising route to recovery and resilience.  Investing in local food production for humanitarian food assistance will boost private sector and public investments in food processing, transport and storage infrastructure to reduce post-harvest losses, tailor cash-based transfers to locally available commodities, and enhance linkages between smallholders' farmers and local enterprises.

What are the key development challenges facing the country? How can the UK best provide distinct support for a) the Nigerian Government and b) civil society in seeking to tackle them?

Economic

10. Nigeria is facing a difficult macroeconomic environment with headline inflation reaching 22 percent as of July 2025. Job opportunities particularly in the formal sector remain limited for many. According to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics, just over 53 percent of young people are unemployed or underemployed, with 4 – 5 million young people joining the labour market every year. However, Nigeria is not creating jobs fast enough to match its growing population and economic needs. Agriculture, which contributed 20.4 percent to Nigeria’s GDP in 2024 and remains the second largest employer, has been severely impacted by insecurity, particularly in key food-producing regions in the north, and a lack of innovation and scalable technology. Without targeted investment in agriculture in northern Nigeria, the region risks falling short of its agricultural potential to address food insecurity and drive economic growth.

11. Nigeria’s capabilities to sufficiently produce food locally to feed its growing population has been constrained by several shocks. Insecurity remains Nigeria’s biggest threat to food production and availability. The current state of road infrastructure, necessary to link many farming communities to markets and processing mills, remains under-developed amid poor storage facilities both at subsistence and commercial levels. The unavailability and or low quality of some Nigerian staples have led to a state of high import-dependency for most staple foods. Many farmers suffer unequal access to financial services, inputs and facilities at a subsidised rate. Despite constituting more than 70 percent of the agricultural workforce in Nigeria[5], women remain marginalised in terms of access and control to these resources due to local cultural and gender dynamics in most communities in Nigeria. 

Nigeria GDP 2013 – 2024. Source: https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/gdp

Inflation rate YoY: Source: https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/inflation-cpi

Inflation hit a 28-year high in June 2024, climbing to over 34 percent. For the next six months, inflation remained above 30 percent, putting pressure on household food consumption. In January 2025, the consumer basket was recalculated, rebasing headline inflation to 24.48 percent and food inflation to 26.08 percent. While the technical revision lowered the official figures, for millions of Nigerians the cost-of-living crisis remains acute, with wages lagging far behind soaring food prices and basic staples increasingly out of reach.

Insecurity

12. Insecurity in Nigeria is a function of many challenges with roots deeply entrenched in widespread poverty and marginalisation, lack of socio-economic opportunities, and poor governance creating fertile ground for radicalisation and recruitment of young people into extremist and criminal groups. In both the Northeast and Northwestern regions of Nigeria, armed groups exploit economic hardship to recruit members, offering financial incentives and a perceived escape from poverty. Insecurity across farming communities is leading to loss of livelihoods for many with over 2.3 million people displaced in the Northeastern States alone[6]. In Northeast Nigeria, 16 years of insurgency have displaced more than 2 million people, most of them farmers who can no longer access their land. Conflict in Northeast Nigeria has left many families entirely dependent on humanitarian assistance, having lost both their source of food and their livelihoods. Across the region, daily wages for casual labour are as low as 20 pence per day, yet the average cost of a loaf of bread is more than four times higher at 90 pence. As a result, an estimated 65 percent of people in conflict-affected areas live in multidimensional poverty, deprived not only of income but also of adequate food and nutrition, compared to 50 percent in the rest of the country.

13. The security situation perpetuated by non-state armed groups is creating a record level food insecurity across the northern region and countrywide, while challenging access by humanitarian actors. The situation has led to a high level of malnutrition for children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women. According to the IPC Acute Malnutrition Analysis for May 2024-April 2025 for the northeast and northwest of Nigeria, an estimated 5.4 million children aged 0-59 months are suffering and are projected to continue to suffer from acute malnutrition throughout 2025[7]. In 2025, the number of acutely and severely food insecure people rose to 31 million people nationwide, including 5 million people in the northeast, and 5 million people in the northwest in the Integrated Food Security Phase (IPC) Phases 3 (Crisis) and 4 (Emergency) during the June to August lean season. Humanitarian partners continue to face protracted access constraints to many communities in the northeast region, relying on humanitarian air assets to reach remote locations in inaccessible areas.

Environmental and climate challenges

14. Nigeria’s environmental and climatic landscape faces a complex array of factors threatening almost every facet of the economy. Recent climatic variations in parts of the country is evidenced in resulting episodic flooding and prolonged dry spells. In September 2024, Nigeria experienced a widescale flooding episode in some parts of the country which affected over 1 million people and destroyed over 440,000 hectares of crops according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)[8]. The impact of the flooding affected more than 1 million people around the northeast region and complicated an already difficult humanitarian situation for many in the region. The interlinkages between climate change and insecurity are evidenced in the resource-based conflicts fuelled by prolonged droughts and consequent shrinking of the Lake Chad Basin. Local economies dependent on the Lake’s resources for their livelihoods have been facing increased food insecurity and displacements.

15. Oil and gas remain the largest contributor to Nigeria’s revenue and foreign exchange earnings. However, its environmental impact on local communities and public health has been detrimental. According to the Nigerian Oil Spill Monitor, 1,459 oil spills were recorded in 2023 with sabotage and oil theft recorded as major contributors to oil spillage[9]. A report by the University of St. Galle in Switzerland found that children born within 10km (6 miles) of an oil spill were twice as likely to die in their first month.

Source: Nigerian Oil Spill Monitor

16. Rapid urbanisation across urban centres has taken its toll on the rich vegetative cover of many communities and urban centres in Nigeria. Illegal cutting of woods, mechanised farming and the increased energy costs of fuel and Liquefied Natural Gas continues to push many poor families to cutting of trees for firewood. These activities constituting the leading causes of deforestation in Nigeria. According to the United Nations Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office, the current deforestation rate is estimated at 3.7%, which is one of the highest in the world[10]. Poor waste management and recycling culture and open defaecation in many rural and urban slums in the absence of public toilets remain significant environmental concerns in the country.

Solutions

17. The UK can play a strategic leadership role by supporting a resilience building approach to humanitarian response in conflict affected communities. Through its humanitarian-development-peace approach, WFP Nigeria is investing in longer term measures to transform Nigeria’s food systems by utilising humanitarian food assistance as pathways to build resilience and unlock greater food production for Nigeria and ultimately peace and stability for the fragile northeast region. The UK has already demonstrated its alignment with this strategic focus by supporting WFP Nigeria beyond traditional humanitarian food assistance for the very first time in 2025, contributing GBP 1 million from the Humanitarian Assistance and Resilience Programme (HARP) to WFP’s integrated resilience programme in the Northwest.

18. The Humanitarian Food Systems Solutions pioneered by WFP Nigeria will leverage public-private partnerships through a blended finance mechanism to unlock the huge potential in the agriculture sector in Northern Nigeria to create jobs, produce more food and reduce humanitarian needs. This presents a unique opportunity for the UK Government to lead and invest in partnerships with WFP Nigeria’s resilience approach, bridging the divide between humanitarian and development while leveraging its Lagos-based private sector partnerships network to support wider engagement Humanitarian Food Systems Solutions for greater peace and food production.

19. Scale advocacy for improved nutrition and humanitarian access. Further, with 31 million Nigerians facing acute food insecurity in this year’s lean season and 5.4 million children under the age of five affected by malnutrition, the UK’s bilateral relations with the Nigerian Government and state governments in conflict-affected states can be leveraged argue for improved and scaled-up nutritional support by the Government to the most affected population groups and improved humanitarian access for the humanitarian community. The UK Government could also advocate for direct funding from the Nigerian government for WFP's Country Strategic Plan, which is aligned to national priorities on humanitarian assistance and resilience building.

20. Boost Anticipatory Action and Disaster Preparedness: Climate extremes – intense heat and severe floods - remains one of the drivers of food insecurity in the country. Capacities to fully prepare and respond to these challenges remain limited. The UK’s investment can strengthen local efforts by the humanitarian community to improve government and local partners efforts to respond to these crises. WFP Nigeria is an operational partner of choice for the Government in periods of crisis providing technical support through capacity strengthening and leveraging its systems for quick and effective responses to emergencies. With the Borno floods in 2024, WFP Nigeria supported more than 80,000 flood-affected people; mobilising hot food distributions within 24 hours in Maiduguri, and providing emergency food assistance in flood-affected areas[11].

What principles should guide UK development engagement with Nigeria as it finalises its “Africa Approach” in the coming months?

21. Partnerships: Nigeria’s strategic positioning within the West African sub-region offers the opportunity for robust private sector investments with potential to scale, through the stability and eventual growth that WFP food assistance is intended to contribute to and sustain. The UK is to remain a consistent bilateral partner in the transformation of the Nigerian economy in diverse areas while continuing to support the humanitarian community. These partnerships should aim at driving and supporting Nigeria to find its own solutions to solving local challenges, in line with the UK’s focus on localisation, and including the Nigerian private sector. Partnerships with WFP ensure value for money and that aid reaches those that need it most.

22. Advocacy for humanitarian principles: As a humanitarian organisation operating in a highly volatile environment such as northeastern Nigeria, it is imperative that the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, humanity and operational independence remain sacrosanct and that humanitarian assistance to affected communities is facilitated and protected by every means. This principle can further shape UK’s developmental agenda and advocacy with the Nigerian Government. 

23. Greater youth and women empowerment: Nigeria has a young population with over half of its population under the age of 30. Many youths and women continue to suffer from marginalisation and largely operating outside the mainstream sectors of the economy. Government’s policies to empower the youth remain limited. With innovations in digital technologies, the 2018 Not-Too-Young-To-Run Law for the youth enabling their active participation in governance and ongoing campaigns for Affirmative Action, Gender Equality Bills and Quotas for Women in the National Assembly, these opportunities present pathways to shape and guide the UK in its development partnerships with Nigeria.

What is the UK doing to help create a fertile environment for equitable investment in Nigeria including through support of corporate and public governance, tackling corruption, and supporting effective economic policies?

24. The UK is clear that it takes a zero tolerance approach to fraud and corruption in the management of taxpayers money. As such, it calls for robust governance, accountability and transparency in WFP’s programme management and that of our delivery partners. The UK’s role within the northeast of Nigeria has strategically positioned it to encourage the Nigerian Government to play a leading role in humanitarian response to humanitarian crises not just as a recipient but also a leading donor of humanitarian aid for the region. Since 2016, the UK Government has contributed a total of USD 405million to WFP’s operations in Nigeria. This funding directly supports knowledge transfer around transparency and community feedback mechanism from humanitarian operations by ensuring localization requirements are met in funded projects. Collaboration with local stakeholders, including the government, pass on these mandatory requirements encouraging the adoption of accountability enhancing practices that strengthen public awareness, trust and participation in policies and programmes that affect them.

25. The UK is enhancing performance management through WFP by working with trusted partners on the ground. WFP’s performance management systems including SCOPE, a beneficiary registration and management tool, have been crucial for tackling leakages and addressing corruption by ensuring the emergency assistance are received by deserving households. WFP has systems in place including oversight mechanisms with traders, retailers and vendors. With these systems in place, the UK needs to work with trusted partners such as WFP Nigeria to support its quest for addressing corruption head-on.

What is the role of development finance institutions, such as BII, in supporting the identified development objectives in Nigeria?

26. BII’s investment of 40.5 million in cocoa processing aligns with WFP’s vision for a stable and prosperous Nigeria that sees a return to peace and production. WFP can support these efforts through its latest food systems study which identifies key investment opportunities to restore the agricultural economy of the north. Through the new UK Africa Plan, BII is encouraged to direct 50% of investments into frontier markets by 2030 and WFP is to be considered as a potential pipeline builder of deep field investment opportunities. BII has been in discussions with WFP regarding a new value chain impact investment fund (World Food Invest/WFI). Nigeria could be a country of focus for investment in agri-food SMEs as part of the humanitarian food systems solutions initiative, where blended finance will play an integral part in restoring food systems and directing private sector investments.

Blended financing vehicles:

27. Recognizing the limitations of traditional funding models, WFP is exploring innovative financing mechanisms such as blended finance and livelihoods impact bonds. These models leverage private sector capital alongside public and philanthropic funds to scale up long-term resilience and livelihoods interventions to rebuild the regions food system. This includes inclusive growth centred on jobs and economic self-reliance for displaced people and conflict affected communities. It also includes identifying resourcing mechanisms, and key stakeholders for outreach and relationship building.

28. WFP Nigeria is seeking to crowd in financing and capital investment to address market failures across the food system in northern Nigeria, secure the support of the private sector and potentially other key actors, to join with WFP Nigeria in championing the Zero Hunger Movement in Nigeria. Engagement with potential partners such as AfDB and Mastercard Foundation (MCF) can be amplified via a strategic approach to initiate an outcomes-based blended finance instrument that would align WFP Nigeria, AfDB, and MCF interest, while WFP mobilizes the resources it needs to implement its robust transformation of the food system in northern Nigeria.

29. The situation in Northern Nigeria meets the three overarching criteria to structure a livelihoods impact bond mechanism targeting food systems in northern Nigeria: (i) Available data and measurable outcomes, (ii) potential for improved operational efficiency, and (iii) innovative and adaptive approaches to delivery. Building on the food systems study recommendations[12], WFP has the knowledge, deep-field infrastructure and partnership networks to act as an investment originator for impact investment capital, especially for climate adaptive agri-food SMEs in more remote and fragile contexts where access for other impact investors may be prohibitively challenging. Within the bond’s structure, it can therefore successfully act as the service provider while an International Financial Institution ensures and manages outcome funding. A private sector partner can fund bond feasibility, design and structure.

What opportunities and challenges does the FCDO face as it seeks to support the localisation of development activities in Nigeria?

Challenges

30. With UK’s priority for localisation by ensuring greater partnership and funding support for local partners to undertake development activities, many local partners in Nigeria often face significant challenges in the delivery of development initiatives at scale. These challenges often arise from constrained institutional capacity, fragmented coordination, and limited access to sustainable funding. Their capacity to mobilise resources and funding for their activities remains limited. The push to adapt local efforts to western-designed implementation frameworks can often impact on smooth delivery of programme interventions in the face of cultural and local dynamics. Local partners also struggle with insufficient technical expertise to manage large-scale interventions effectively to support localisation agenda. To unlock their full potential, there is an urgent need for flexibility, adaptive models of partnership—ones that prioritize long term capacity building, allow for context-specific innovation, while embracing a culture of continuous and dynamic learning. Strengthening these local actors with tailored support and autonomy can transform them into powerful engines of inclusive growth and resilience.

Opportunities

31. The UK Government has a unique opportunity to deepen its localisation agenda in Nigeria by forging strategic partnerships with trusted local actors, evaluated through longer term partnerships with specialized UN agencies such as WFP. These partnerships would leverage the strong local understanding of their contexts of operations by local partners where programme implementation can be dynamic and tailored to the nuances of their contexts. The wider reach of local organisations remains a key asset to their capabilities to quickly reach and respond to crises than the reach by international organisations. Further, their deep understanding of their communities creates more opportunities for costs-effectiveness and efficiency in project delivery. Being deeply embedded in the local context and communities has fostered increased communal trust and local acceptance within communities. In terms of sustainability and when provided with strong technical skills, local organisations remain catalytic forces to scale and sustain developmental initiatives in Nigeria even after the exit of international organisations.

What opportunities are there for the UK to work with Nigerian Government to prevent conflict, promote peace and reconciliation in the Sahel?

32. Humanitarian programmes and funding should stimulate resilience-building. A mindset change is required at all levels, including the Government, as well as policies to guide humanitarian actors in meeting lifesaving needs with investments in local production (food and non-food) and conditional transfers (not hand-outs), so that the most vulnerable people are enabled to become self-reliant where circumstances permit.. A humanitarian food systems approach, with strong Government leadership, can stimulate investment in fragile contexts and contribute to peace and production. Investment in the agricultural value chain to promote employment opportunities for many unemployed individuals and the youth will contribute to enhancing social cohesion across many fragile communities in Northern Nigeria.

33. More broadly, the UK should consider resuming its leadership on conflict prevention, which saves lives and is cost effective. Analysis suggests that for every $1 spent on development saves up to $103 in future crisis response costs[13]. Yet in 2023, only 1% of UK aid went to towards peacebuilding, violence prevention and conflict resolution. With a new 5% commitment of GDP on national security and 1.5% of this for ‘resilience and security’, there is an argument for the UK to direct this to programmes that promote conflict prevention and resolution in countries such as Nigeria to build peace, stability and prosperity.

What opportunities are there for the UK to work with civil society, particularly women, to prevent conflict, promote peace and reconciliation in the Sahel?

34. The passage of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and consequent domestication in Nigeria has seen the emergence of more localised action by the government and key stakeholders particularly civil society to empower women with agency and voice in decision making processes and as peacebuilders in conflict affected communities in recognition of the disproportionate effect of conflicts on women. Since its passage, Nigeria has launched two National Action Plan on the WPS Agenda and is generating coordinative actions through state level action plans on the WPS Agenda.

35. Further, recent statutes such as the Public Finance Management Act promote public participation in public resource use and encourage public scrutiny and accountability in financial governance. However, Nigeria has made minimal progress in address gender disparity in political leadership ranking 143 out of 144 countries in the 2025 World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report[14]. This gap is an opportunity for the UK to support women-led civil society groups to drive women’s participation in conflict prevention, peacebuilding and reconciliation in the region. Advocacy groups that drive gender transformative discourse around the socio-religious and economic factors that mitigate women participation in politics are essential to achieving milestones on SDG 5 (Gender Equality) as an entry point for women led peacebuilding initiatives.

How could UK investment and ODA be best catalysed to support Nigeria’s transition away from fossil fuels and respond to environmental challenges?

36. Investment in food systems solutions: WFP’s joint food systems study with AfDB and IFPRI (Investing in Humanitarian Solutions: An Innovative Food Systems Approach) highlights the multidimensional gains that can be gleaned from leveraging emergency assistance to achieve systems strengthening objectives. WFP recognises the immense potential of the food system in northern Nigeria and has pivoted its strategy to ensure the opportunity to drive food systems strengthening alongside its core lifesaving mandate is not missed. Considering the 33 percent FCDO ODA programme budget cut —from GBP 9.3 billion in 2024/2025 to GBP 6.2 billion in 2027/2028— multipronged approaches must be prioritized to avoid a reversal the achievements from previous development investments. While climate shocks, infrastructural gaps and poor connectivity within the nodes of the agricultural value chain are among the challenges constraining the performance of the agricultural sector in Nigeria, increasing the investment in solutions that combine humanitarian and resilience building objectives such as food assistance for productive assets activities will yield results that will boost agricultural revenue and resilience with the associated benefit of decreasing the domestic GDP reliance of fossil fuels.

37. Nigeria's economy being highly dependent crude oils from fossil fuels can benefit from UK investments and ODA as catalytic forces to shift crude oil dependence to sustainable and climate smart agricultural practices to power irrigation systems and reduce dependence on rain-fed agriculture; thereby promoting sustainable food production. With global efforts to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, the promotion of fuel-efficient stoves to reduce carbon emissions and afforestation programmes matched with expansion in anticipatory action and early warning and emergency preparedness to address climate shocks.

38. This submission also provides recommendations based on the above responses to encourage ODA support towards lifesaving humanitarian food assistance and resilience strengthening initiatives. WFP Nigeria recommends that the UK Government:

1. Scale funding for lifesaving humanitarian assistance in the face of dwindling resources globally, and increasing humanitarian needs to prevent potential negative coping strategies food insecure families may be forced to take. Latest analysis indicates that over 30 million people across Nigeria will face hunger at crisis and emergency levels (IPC 3 and 4)[15].
2. Support the Humanitarian Food Systems Solutions. Restored and functioning food systems are key contributors to peace, stability and resilience in northern Nigeria. The UK Government should expand current and future support to strengthening resilience by investing in WFP’s innovative approach to transform Nigeria’s food systems.
3. Support advocacy to ensure unimpeded humanitarian access in conflict affected areas for greater reach to vulnerable households and for increased sustainability of multiyear programming. Strategic support to local peacebuilding initiatives including those regarding reintegration and rehabilitation of ex-combatants as well as natural resource management.
4. UK can play a leading role in private sector investment in agriculture in Nigeria’s northern region to restore production and create employment opportunities for young people by promoting linkages with UK’s private sector companies.
5. Predictable and flexible funding from the UK Government will allow WFP to respond rapidly to changing contexts and emerging needs. WFP has been receiving critical core (fully flexible funding) from the UK since 2010. WFP’s Food System Influence Index (FSII) is one example of how the agency is shifting toward food-system-sensitive operations - designed to advise on the contributions that different transfer modalities (food, cash and vouchers) as well as local food purchases can have on local food systems. WFP would hugely benefit from continued flexible contributions to address the most pressing needs and prioritise operational efficiency.