Transparency data

FCDO humanitarian and social protection results: factsheet, April 2022 to March 2023

Published 16 October 2023

13.8 million people were reached with food aid, cash and voucher transfers through bilateral humanitarian and social protection support (April 2022 to March 2023).

Key definitions

This indicator captures the number of people reached with food aid, cash, and vouchers between April 2022 and March 2023, by the FCDO’s bilateral (earmarked) humanitarian and social protection programmes.

The result is an indication of reach but not the complete picture. Due to the inherent challenging operating context, it is likely that these are underestimates.

The indicator does not include other types of aid, for example shelter, water and sanitation. This is to avoid double counting beneficiaries between different types of assistance provided. See ‘Methodology’ and ‘How to use these statistics’ sections.

Results from FCDO core contributions (unearmarked funding) to multilateral agencies that deliver humanitarian assistance are not included in this result. This core funding would have further contributed to reaching people through the multilateral’s own lifesaving assistance. For instance, in 2022 the UK provided £40 million in unearmarked funding to the World Food Programme (WFP). In 2022 WFP reached 108 million people with essential food aid and 49 million people through cash transfers.

Region

Asia was the region where most of FCDO’s food aid, cash and voucher transfers were made, with at least 5.9 million people reached between April 2022 to March 2023.

The largest number of people reached in a single country was in Afghanistan (4.1 million people) over the same period. See the data table for a country breakdown.

Percentage of results by region, 2022 to 2023

Data in chart: Asia: 43%, Africa: 40%, Middle East: 12%, Global: 3%, Europe: 2%.

Gender

Of the 13.8 million people reached, it is estimated that at least:

Data in chart: female: 6.3 million (45%), male: 5.6 million (41%).

The gender of 14% of people reached is unknown.

Fragility

The majority of people reached with food aid, cash and voucher transfers were based in extremely fragile countries (48%), while 40% of beneficiaries were located in fragile countries.^{[footnote 1]}

Percentage of results by country fragility levels, 2022 to 2023

Data in chart: Extremely fragile: 48%, Fragile: 40%, Not identified: 6%.

Methodology

Recipients of food aid, cash and vouchers funded from FCDO’s bilateral humanitarian and social protection programmes delivered through shock-responsive social protection systems (that are additional to regular on-going social protection transfers) are reported in this indicator. Examples of the types of aid include:

• food aid: rations and nutritious food for children and pregnant women

• cash: enables recipient to buy food at local market and shops

• vouchers: can be exchanged for food, sanitary products or household items at designated vendors

FCDO departments with humanitarian or social protection programmes count the number of people benefitting from food aid, cash or voucher transfers for at least one month during the reporting year.

When aggregating the number of people reached at the country level, adjustments are made to ensure that each beneficiary only is counted once:

• if more than one FCDO Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme covers the same population, only results from the programme with the highest reach is included

• in FCDO programmes where assistance is delivered through multiple partners, double counting is avoided by only including the partner which reaches the highest number of unique beneficiaries

This means that the reported results are likely to underestimate the number of people reached.

Through its Inclusive Data Charter Action Plan, FCDO is committed to collecting data disaggregated by gender, disability, age and geography, where possible. Due to humanitarian and social protection support being delivered in very challenging contexts – often in conflict zones or after natural disasters – it is not always possible to collect or quality assure all disaggregated data to sufficient standards. However, FCDO is working with partners and on internal data systems with a view to improve availability of disaggregated data over time. For 2022 to 2023, gender disaggregated data is available. In some contexts, typically refugee camps, the number of females, males and unknown genders have been counted, whereas in other contexts the gender breakdown is based on an estimate.

Quality assurance has been carried out by Statistics Advisers in FCDO’s Humanitarian, Migration and Food Security Directorate with a focus on checking calculations and aggregations.

Strengths and weaknesses

• most results originate from delivery partners’ reporting or management information systems, which are generally accurate and timely

• it is likely that the results are an underestimate due to the precautions taken to remove the risk of double counting beneficiaries (see ‘Methodology’). Due to these precautions, it is not possible to have a result that captures all humanitarian and social protection ODA expenditure and activities

• the FCDO reports results in UK financial years (April to March). Where partner data relate to calendar years or other timeframes, an appropriate overlapping period will be used consistently over time without adjustment

• gender disaggregation provided in this fact sheet are based on a mix of actual results collected by gender and estimates based on % population. We aim to continue improving the quality and coverage of this – and other – dimensions of disaggregation

• in some contexts, the recipient of the food/cash/voucher is assumed to be the only beneficiary. However, often one transfer is made with an expectation that it will benefit an entire household, in which case all household members – counted or estimated – are included in the result

• due to the outbreak of conflict at the time of data collection, it has not been possible to verify results from Sudan to the required standards. Therefore, while aid is still being delivered and monitored, results from Sudan are not included in this publication

How to use the data

This result covers all beneficiaries for financial year 2022 to 2023, which is the baseline year. The result for 2022 to 2023 should not be added on to historic results (collected under the former DFID Single Departmental Plan) as there will be duplication between the beneficiaries (ie the same person being reached with support in multiple years). 

These results only capture part of FCDO humanitarian and social protection assistance, which spans many more types of aid (for example, shelter, medical support, water and sanitation). Therefore, it would be misleading to compare results to aid spend in the humanitarian and social protection sectors.

Contact

We are keen to enhance the value of these statistics and welcome your feedback or questions by email: statistics@fcdo.gov.uk.

1. Fragility levels defined as per OECD (2022), States of Fragility 2022. Results achieved by regional departments are excluded from the chart as fragility levels are only available for individual countries. ↩