UN food agency and Arab League sign accord to fight hunger

In an effort to coordinate the battle against hunger and malnutrition, especially among women and children, the United Nations emergency feeding agency and the Arab League have signed their first memorandum of understanding for future cooperation.

“This is an historic agreement between two international organizations both working to improve the status of food security in the Middle East,” the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) External Relations division, Allan Jury, said at the signing ceremony at the League’s headquarters yesterday in Cairo.

“Unfortunately, a number of hotspots in the world are today located in the Middle East and tragically affect the livelihoods of people living in the region,” he added. “Our hope is that by working together we can alleviate their suffering. There is no doubt that the world will become stable and secure if we can join forces to fight hunger, misery and injustice.”

WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian agency which in 2003 fed a record 104 million people in 81 countries, has already been providing significant amounts of food to League members. In Sudan it is targeting over 2 million people, in Egypt 500,000 and in Yemen 30,000.

The 22-member League, founded in 1945, is the world’s oldest regional organization with a mandate to promote closer ties and economic development in the region.