The Minister for Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, has confirmed that the department of international development raised assistance of €28.9 million by 2021.
This comprises an advanced payment of €25 million, committed by Ireland to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) 2022, under its new Strategic Partnership Agreement 2022-2024 with the WFP, signed earlier this month.
The Minister said that the insecurity regarding food continues to rise worldwide, owing to the combined impact of conflict including COVID-19 and climate crisis, taking malnutrition and hunger to an unexpected level.
The Minister’s department leads Ireland’s collaboration with the UN’s leading food agencies – the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)- toward the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger by 2030.
Minister McConalogue noted that in 2021, the department strengthened Ireland’s partnership and support of their work by entering into a new strategic alliance with the WFP and a first framework Agreement with the FAO. The undetermined worsening of hunger witnessed worldwide during 2021 calls in for transforming the global agri-food systems.
Ireland is a pioneer in supporting or backing the global food system transformation, based on its appreciation as the central importance of fishing, farming and food production to its rural coastal communities.
McConalogue added that the country strongly supports the UN agencies in this work which includes the follow-up to the Food Systems Summit and its Food Vision 2030 strategy.
Furthermore, Minister McConalogue confirmed payments of €2.1 million for precise FAO projects and programs, in addition to Ireland’s yearly evaluated contribution of €1.56 million.
These specific projects will focus on emergency agricultural assistance, rural economic empowerment, climate change resilience, and sustainable food systems. In addition, payments of €206,000 under the AADP (Africa Agri-food Development Programme), which the department runs in collaboration with the Department of Foreign Affairs, were also made.
Source Credit - https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/department-international-aid-payment-almost-e30-million-in-2021/