Press Release

 OFID PROVIDES US$1.5 MILLION TO WORLD FOOD PROGRAM TO HELP BRIDGE FUNDING GAP

09/2008 March 31, 2008 Vienna, Austria
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The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) today approved an emergency grant of US$1.5 million to the World Food Program (WFP) to help address a critical funding gap caused by soaring food and fuel prices. Announcing the decision, OFID Director-General, Mr. Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, said that the grant “would help mitigate unnecessary suffering among people who are already living in vulnerable circumstances.”

OFID’s move follows an urgent appeal by WFP to the international donor community earlier this month, in which the UN organization revealed that the cost of conducting its programs had risen by 55 per cent since June 2007. This had resulted in a funding shortfall of US$500 million by the end of February 2008. According to WFP, food prices have since increased by another 20 per cent.

OFID has a long history of supplying large-scale food aid, particularly to Africa and often in cooperation with WFP. In 1981 when many parts of the continent were struck by prolonged famine and drought, OFID provided US$25 million to the International Food Reserve to help alleviate the problem. This was followed in 1984 with a further US$5 million for the purchase of vehicles to speed up the delivery of emergency supplies to stricken communities. In 2002, OFID set up a Food Aid Special Grant Account worth US$20 million. Through the Account, some 43,000 metric tons of food rations were distributed to starving communities in nine African countries.

Together with contributions from other donors, OFID’s latest grant will help WFP continue to meet the urgent hunger needs of over 70 million people a day in up to 80 countries. Some three million of the WFP’s beneficiaries are in Darfur, the Sudan.