Ireland Signs New Deal With U.N. World Food Program

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, and the Minister for Trade and Development, Joe Costello TD, have signed a three-year Strategic Partnership Agreement with the Executive Director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), Ertharin Cousin, in Dublin.

The WFP is the largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.

The agreement sets out shared objectives in the area of humanitarian assistance, as well as committing Ireland to providing a minimum of €7 million a year to WFP for the next three years.

The agreement was signed, at Dublin Castle during the Hunger-Nutrition-Climate Justice Conference which is co-hosted by the Government of Ireland and the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice in partnership with WFP and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

The agreement formalises a long-standing relationship between Ireland and the WFP.

In addition to the core contribution of a minimum of €7 million a year, which will be funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will continue to provide funding in response to humanitarian emergences.

Minister Coveney commented that he was "delighted to be a signatory to this important agreement which deepens Ireland's long-standing partnership with the WFP. "Given our history, hunger and famine are issues which resonate strongly with Irish people and I am proud that notwithstanding the recent downturn in our economy, we have been able to maintain our core contribution to the WFP at the same level in recent years.

"I was pleased to hear from Executive Director Cousin the valuable contribution which our funding is making to saving lives around the world.

"We also discussed priorities for the use of the Irish funding over the life-time of this agreement and I have emphasised to the Executive Director our willingness to assist and support the WFP's work in any way feasible".