Monaco participates in annual session of World Food Programme Executive Board

Participation de Monaco à la session annuelle 2024 du Conseil d’administration du Programme Alimentaire Mondial © DR

From 24–28 June 2024, the Principality of Monaco took part in the annual session of the Executive Board of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), which opened with the celebration of the International Day of Women in Diplomacy.

In her address, Executive Director H.E. Ms. Cindy McCain reflected on the many ongoing crises – in Gaza, Sudan, the Sahel, Haiti, Yemen, Myanmar and Ukraine – as well as on measures taken to support and protect affected populations, along with the WFP teams working on the front line to help vulnerable communities hit hard by food shortages.

Stressing the vital need to deliver emergency food aid to these areas, she called on Members to mobilise all possible political and diplomatic means to “facilitate access, ensure the safety and security of humanitarian workers and, most importantly, help negotiate political solutions to end the conflicts that fuel so much hunger and suffering around the world”.

During the session, the WFP Executive Board approved the Annual performance report for 2023, the WFP management plan (2024-2026) and three country strategic plans, including that of the Kingdom of Lesotho for 2024-2029.

In parallel to the event, H.E. Ms. Anne Eastwood met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lesotho, who attended the session and was very receptive to the first partnership signed by Monaco with the World Food Programme at the end of the year to support school feeding and small producers in two southern districts of the country particularly affected by poverty, malnutrition and the consequences of climate change.

The Principality, committed to the second UN Sustainable Development Goal to achieve zero hunger, has made food security one of its most important fields of action. The World Food Programme is the largest multilateral partner of the Department of International Cooperation. The Department and WFP work hand-in-hand on nine development assistance programmes, over half of which focus on school canteens as a way to make a tangible contribution to the WFP School Feeding Strategy 2020-2030 and the School Meals Coalition launched in 2021.