ROME: A UN agency says Saudi Arabia has offered to fund a world summit on food security to be held in Rome in November. The cost of the meeting at the Food and Agriculture Organization’s headquarters is estimated at $2.5 million.
Such summits are considered extraordinary events not covered by the FAO’s operating budget, and countries can volunteer to fund them — as Italy did at last year’s summit. The FAO said Thursday that Saudi Arabia’s offer to fund the Nov. 16-18 summit was made during a visit by the agency’s secretary general, Jacques Diouf, to Riyadh earlier this month.
The meeting was called by the agency to discuss ways to increase investment in agriculture and food production. FAO estimates that hunger affects one billion people worldwide. In other news regarding Saudi Arabia’s global humanitarian funding: Saudi Arabia has announced an SR70 million aid to support developmental and humanitarian projects in Darfur in Sudan where the continuing war has killed more than 300,000 people so far and ravaged the economy. On behalf of the Kingdom, Fayez Al-Ahmadi, deputy chief of the Saudi Red Crescent Society (SRCS), signed the agreement in Khartoum recently to extend Saudi assistance that would go a long way toward alleviating the suffering of the people in Darfur.
“Saudi Arabia has been providing assistance to Sudan, and the efforts of SRCS are particularly commendable in this regard,” said Sudanese Ambassador Abdel Hafiz Ibrahim.
Referring to the Saudi aid for Darfur projects, Osama Mahjob Hassan, a spokesman of the Sudanese Embassy, said: “The donation will be mainly used for implementing health projects.”
Hassabu Mohammed Abdulrahman, the Khartoum-based General Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, signed the agreement from the Sudanese side. The aid is timely and important since Sudan expelled 13 major aid groups from Darfur a few months back.
— With Input from Ghazanfar Ali Khan
