Head of UN Food Aid Agency Begins Visit to Middle East

New York, Jan 17 2011 12:10PM

The head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Josette Sheeran, today began a three-day mission to the occupied Palestinian territory, Israel and Jordan, during which she will visit the agency’s projects and meet with government officials, partner organisations and staff.

Ms. Sheeran will visit school meals projects and an electronic food voucher project in the West Bank, and tour the oldest school in Hebron to meet students and see the impact the programmes have had on the lives of the children and other residents in the area.

The school meals programme, implemented mostly in areas with high unemployment and poverty levels, is a safety net mechanism and an incentive aimed at ensuring children do not drop out of school. More than 75,000 schoolchildren receive snacks provided by WFP in the West Bank.

The WFP Executive Director will also make a stop in a shop where the agency has been providing the most vulnerable Palestinians with food assistance through an electronic voucher system. Food vouchers enable WFP to respond to hunger when food is available but people cannot afford it. The voucher system also helps put money into the local economy, thus supporting local producers.

She will meet high-level Palestinian officials, including Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and the ministers of education and social affairs.

Tomorrow Ms. Sheeran will meet Israeli President Shimon Peres and other senior Israeli officials.

She will proceed to Jordan on Wednesday where she will meet government officials and visit food-for-work projects started by WFP in 1997 and handed over to the Government in early 2008.

The project resulted in the transformation of over 35,000 hectares of bare land into forestry and farmlands and the planting of over 3 million olive and fruit trees. The project now provides Jordan with more than 70 per cent of its olive oil and thousands of job opportunities for local communities.

Later on Wednesday Ms. Sheeran will meet with WFP Country Directors from the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe who are holding their annual regional meeting in Jordan.

ENDS

© Scoop Media