The agreement between Luxembourg and WFP was signed yesterday by Romain Schneider, Minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian Action of Luxembourg, and WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin. The signature took place during a “virtual” ceremony, in a video-conference link between Luxembourg City and WFP headquarters in Rome, Italy.

“Luxembourg is a respected and reliable partner of WFP. We are proud to work together in leveraging cutting-edge technology to make our assistance more efficient,” said Cousin. “With this support from Luxembourg, WFP is providing life-saving food assistance to families in Africa and elsewhere around the world.”

Under the new agreement, Luxembourg is committed to provide €7 million annually in predictable funding over four years towards a wide range of WFP operations. Luxembourg’s contribution will support humanitarian operations in West and Central Africa in addition to critical WFP programmes including emergency telecommunications, school meals, efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, support for people suffering from HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis, as well as emergency preparedness measures.

Of the total contribution, Luxembourg has earmarked €2 million in support of the WFP-led Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) and its efforts to ensure all those responding to humanitarian emergencies, including disaster-affected people, have access to vital communications services. During the previous four year partnership, Luxembourg supported the ETC in numerous operations including Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the conflict in South Sudan and the Ebola Crisis in West Africa.

This partnership agreement, the second of its kind, highlights the shared obligation by Luxembourg and WFP to focus on responding to emergencies through efficient, effective and innovative tools.

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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 75 countries.

For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Caroline Hurford, WFP/Rome, Tel +39 06 6513 2330, mobile Tel.  +39 340 3481325018

Originally appeared on WFP.org