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Chamber and committees

Question reference: S6W-11284

  • Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
  • Date lodged: 4 October 2022
  • Current status: Answered by Neil Gray on 24 October 2022

Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of its Humanitarian Emergency Fund spending for the last 12 months.


Answer

Our independent Humanitarian Emergency Fund (HEF) Panel, supported by the HEF Secretariat, have prepared an Annual Report on HEF spend across 2021-22. In the interests of transparency and accountability, the Scottish Government will make this available on our website in due course.

In the meantime, I am able to confirm the Scottish Government's £1 million Humanitarian Emergency Fund was activated four times in the 2021-22 financial year. Additional funding of £4.4 million was provided to respond to crises in Ukraine and Malawi. A breakdown of funding allocations in 2021-22 is available in the following table.

Crisis Location

Activation Type

Recipient Organisation

Funding Amount

South Sudan

HEF Stream 2

Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF)

£120,500

Christian Aid

£120,500

Afghanistan

HEF Stream 2

Tearfund

£120,000

Christian Aid/Islamic Relief

£240,000

Afghanistan

HEF Stream 1A

Disasters Emergency Committee

£192,000

HEF Stream 1B

SCIAF

£48,000

Burkina Faso

HEF Stream 2

Tearfund

£123,000

N/A

HEF Secretariat Admin fee

Disasters Emergency Committee

£36,000

Malawi

Additional funding - Storm Ana flooding response

British Red Cross

£400,000

Ukraine

Additional funding - Ukraine humanitarian response

SCIAF

£500,000

British Red Cross

£500,000

Disasters Emergency Committee

£2,000,000

UNICEF

£1,000,000

To date, the HEF has been activated twice in the 2022-23 financial year. We have provided £250,000 to assist people affected by the hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa. This was split equally between Christian Aid, for work in Ethiopia, and Islamic Relief, for work in Somalia.

The Scottish Government have also committed £500,000 to respond to the floods in Pakistan, with £250,000 coming from the HEF and a further £250,000 from the Climate Justice Fund. £400,000 of this has been committed to the Disasters Emergency Committee Appeal, with the remainder split equally between the two non-DEC members of the HEF Panel, Mercy Corps and SCIAF.