Press Release

OFID Director-General announces approval of food aid grant in observance of World Food Day

46/2009 October 20, 2009 Vienna, Austria
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The Director-General of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), Mr. Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, announced on Friday, October 16, the approval of a US$500,000 food aid grant to assist in global efforts to battle growing hunger across the world. The announcement came on World Food Day, 2009. The “Day” is every October 16, observed to mark the founding in 1945 of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Mr. Al-Herbish made the announcement at the residence of the Moroccan Ambassador to Austria, HE Dr. Omar Zniber, where Mr. Al-Herbish was decorated with the Order of Wissam Al Alaoui (see separate press release 45/2009).

Mr. Al-Herbish went on to highlight OFID’s activities toward helping combat food insecurity and poverty. “Despite today’s financial crisis, OFID has ensured that it was doing all it could to help alleviate suffering around the world,” Mr. Al-Herbish said. He also touched on the institution’s role in establishing the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and OFID’s continuing support to the Common Fund for Commodities. He called the problems of hunger and lack of food as among the world’s “key challenges.”

This year’s World Food Day theme is Achieving Food Security in Times of Crisis. The commemoration highlights the fact that more than one billion people across the world - one hundred million more than last year - are undernourished. Proceeds from the OFID grant, which will be channeled through the World Food Program, will be used to support the organization’s latest emergency food assistance program in low-income countries.

Arabic version