Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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1143. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the details of Ireland’s contribution to the United Nations World Food Programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21634/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Assisting 100 million people in 88 countries, the World Food Programme (WFP) is the United Nations humanitarian organisation saving and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. It works in partnership with other UN and international organisations, NGOs, civil society and the private sector to enable communities and countries to meet their own food needs. The WFP plays a significant role in the UN’s global campaign for Zero Hunger (Sustainable Development Goal 2) and is at the forefront of dealing with the migration crisis. For its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict, WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020.  

My Department leads on Ireland’s engagement with the WFP, which is funded exclusively from voluntary contributions. Ireland’s commitment to the WFP, expressed through three-yearly Strategic Partnership Agreements, was €70million for the period 2019-2021. My Department is currently leading on the preparations for the next SPA (2022-2024). This contribution will help save lives and support food security and nutrition and rebuild livelihoods in fragile settings and it reaffirms Ireland’s role as one of WFP’s most engaged partners.  Ireland also chairs Friends of Nutrition, an informal space where Member States and the World Food Programme can come together to discuss the shared ambition for nutrition. Also, my Department represented Ireland at the WFP Executive Board in 2018 and 2019 as part of the rotating board membership. Ireland will sit on the Board again in 2023.