WFP participates in DIHAD 2005

Located under the UN pavilion, one of the main supporters of DIHAD 2005, the WFP booth embodies its ultimate goal to eliminate hunger in the world. In partnership with other organizations, WFP provides life-saving food in emergency situations, such as conflict and natural disasters. It also provides food for development programs like school feeding and food-for-work projects that help promote basic education, social stability, and self-reliance.

"We are happy to participate for the second time in DIHAD and would like to express our gratitude to the UAE government for giving WFP and the humanitarian community support and back-up to go on with their humanitarian work in fighting hunger and poverty in the world", said Amir Abdulla, WFP's Regional Director for the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. "Dubai has become an important international platform for humanitarian relief work and WFP is pleased to have a base there and to be associated with the initiatives of the Dubai government which supports humanitarian operations worldwide," he added.

The WFP Dubai Office was set up in January 2001 to support the UN agency's global humanitarian operations by providing critical telecommunication networks to facilitate the implementation of humanitarian relief.

The Dubai office's rapid deployment teams are always the first on the ground in an emergency situation to set up a communications network that can be used by WFP staff, and often, as well, WFP's humanitarian partners running the operations.

In 2004, WFP Dubai provided assistance to 50 countries and procured over US$11 million of non-food items. The goods are sent to support relief operations of WFP and other UN agencies and non-government agencies around the world.
"Dubai's strategic location on the Gulf, with easy access by sea or air to Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, together with a first-rate infrastructure, make it one of the most developed logistic hubs in the world and that has given our rapid intervention emergency team an advantage to reach areas in crisis effectively and on time," said Peter Casier, Director of WFP's Dubai Support Office.

At the start of the recent Tsunami emergency, the Dubai office immediately mobilized staff, who landed in Indonesia and Sri Lanka two days after the Tsunami hit. At the same time equipment was mobilized from the WFP Dubai Support Office to ensure that the WFP food relief operation could get started without delay. Within a few days of the crisis, six different operational centers were set up by the Dubai teams in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The teams were also requested to provide secure telecommunications support to the entire humanitarian community in those countries.

The Dubai Support office currently has staff supporting humanitarian operations in Chad, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year we give food aid to an average of 90 million people, including 56 million hungry children, in more than 80 countries.

WFP Global School Feeding Campaign - For just 19 US cents a day, you can help WFP give children in poor countries a healthy meal at school - a gift of hope for a brighter future.