W.F.P director meets acting minister of Rural Rehabilitation & Development

Mary Allen, Director of the World Food Program (W.F.P) in Afghanistan met this with Alhaj Mullah Mohammad Yunus Akhundzada, the acting Minister of Rural Rehabilitation & Development (RRD).

To begin with, the Minister first thanked the World Food Program (WFP) for providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan in the current situation. He assured that the Islamic Emirate would fully cooperate with all aid agencies and provide necessary facilities in connection with this.

He went on to say “three years ago, when most of Afghanistan was struck by a severe drought, we had a productive meeting with the World Food Program (W.F.P) in Doha, which resulted in WFP assistance to the drought-stricken people,”

He added. “People are facing the same problems now.” Hopefully, this meeting would turned out to be just as useful as the previous one.

Mary Allen, in turn, thanked the Islamic Emirate for its cooperation and pledging its support in the implementation of food-related projects.

Lady Allen added that the United Nations had asked the international community for 600 million dollars to help Afghanistan survive the food crisis and fulfill the basic necessities through humanitarian aid. Fortunately, the international community announced 1200 million dollars in aid to Afghanistan.

Ms. Mary Allen asserted  that of the 200 million dollars earmarked for the World Food Program (WFP) this year, 100 million dollars have so far been received and that their efforts to get more is in progress.

She added” we hope to further increase our support in 2022 as winter goes on.

Ms. Allen sought information on some issues in light of the Islamic Emirate’s policies which was provided by the Acting Minister in great detail.

He also reminded the leadership of the organization about procurement of W.F.P-assisted food items

It (food items) need to be purchased within Afghanistan instead of being imported.

In case of unavailability of food item, it ought to be imported into Afghanistan by Afghan traders which would be a great help to the Afghan economy. Furthermore, the Afghan farmers and other craftsmen would be encouraged.

Eventually, the ministry and the WFP leadership agreed on coordination and cooperation in provision of assistance to the people of Afghanistan in order that aid would be delivered to the deserving people in good time.