As UN agency advocate, Princess Haya spotlights hunger in Ethiopia

While travelling to Ethiopia as the Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein of Jordan urged the donor community to continue providing food aid for the millions of Ethiopians plagued by hunger.

After visits to WFP projects around the country, Princess Haya said yesterday in the Ethiopia capital of Addis Ababa that food aid was more vital than ever in saving lives and helping millions of people escape poverty.

“In Ethiopia, a combination of complex factors every year leave thousands upon thousands of people struggling to find enough food to eat, clean water to drink and proper medicines to take,” said Princess Haya, the agency’s second Goodwill Ambassador and the first Arab and first woman to assume the position.

She added that WFP projects are helping people rebuild their lives and find solutions that help them become self-reliant.

Even with a generally good harvest at the end of 2005, about 2.6 million Ethiopians, most in the drought-hit south, will need emergency assistance this year. Another 7 million people are chronically short of food and will receive food and cash transfers in exchange for their work in community-based schemes.

This is the second field visit Princess Haya has made since her appointment as WFP’s Goodwill Ambassador in October. Nearly two months ago, she travelled to Malawi to spotlight the food crisis in that African country. She will make other field visits to hunger stricken areas over the next few months.

WFP’s budget for its relief and recovery operation in Ethiopia for a three-year period that began in January 2005 is $763 million.

The Princess is the daughter of the late King Hussein Bin Talal of Jordan and the wife of General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Defence Minister of the United Arab Emirates.

Princess Haya created the first food aid non-governmental organization (NGO) in the Arab world, “Tkiyet Um Ali,” an initiative that she founded in Jordan to provide food aid and social services to the poor.