Ireland to donate €60 million to the UN World Food Programme

The announcement was made ahead of the EXPO Milan which Minister Coveney is co-hosting with the Italian Minister for Agriculture, Maurizio Martina. The event has been designed to promote the work of the WFP at which Bono lead singer of U2 and co founder of ONE attended.

The opening address will be made this evening by the Italian Prime Minister Mateo Renzi. Minister Coveney highlighted that the refugee crisis will be at the forefront of the agenda for the EXPO.

“The spotlight is on the acute refugee crisis we are seeing day after day in Europe and this demands a response,” said the Minister. “We cannot ignore the awful spectre of masses of ordinary people fleeing their homelands in search of safety and a better life for their loved ones.”

The Minister added that while funding to WFP will not solve the crisis it will “provide the WFP with the practical means to deliver emergency assistance to the most needy and fragile and to ensure that life-saving supplies of food and nutrition are available at short notice.”

Ireland’s commitment to increase our contribution to the WFP for the next three years makes it one of the largest per capita donors to the World Food Programme. An annual contribution of untied aid to WFP of €20 million a year for each of the next three years will be made.

The Minister, together with the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, the executive director of the World Food Programme, Ertharin Cousin, Bono and Amira Gornass, candidate for the Chair of the FAO Committee on Food Security, will participate in a public discussion highlighting the work of the WFP in providing food and nutritional support to the poorest, weakest and most undernourished people in the world.