WFP Regional Director Meets Top UNMIL Officials

WFP’s Regional Director for Central and West Africa, Mr Abdou Dieng, on a four-day visit to Liberia, Monday held bilateral discussions with two senior officials of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

Dieng met with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), FaridZarif, and Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General (DSRSG)/UN Resident Coordinator in Liberia, Yacoub El Hillo, at UN HQ in Monrovia. Dieng lauded UNMIL for their collaboration with WFP and support to the country, adding “We are pleased to see the tremendous progress the country has made to overcome the effects of the civil war and the Ebola Virus Disease to an acceptable level and faster than expected”.

During the meeting, discussions centered on the ongoing UNMIL drawdown and the capacity of the UN agencies in Liberia to continue to collectively support the Government and people of Liberia after the drawdown of UNMIL.
They also discussed WFP’s expertise in areas of food security, nutrition and livelihoods support for resilience building for vulnerable populations. WFP’s technical support to the government on the ongoing Zero Hunger Strategic Review that is intended to assist the country achieve zero hunger status by 2030 in line with Sustainable Development Goal Two (SDG 2) was also deliberated.

The three senior officials then touched on the challenges faced in mobilizing resources for WFP’s various activities such as school feeding and home-grown school feeding which link smallholder farmers with markets to support education, and the role the government can play in addressing these resource mobilization issues. They also discussed the supply chain services – land/air/sea transport, telecommunications and warehousing – that WFP may provide to UN agencies, the donor community and government after the UNMIL drawdown.

Meanwhile, Regional Director Dieng is expected to meet with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, other senior government officials as well as development partners in Monrovia on Tuesday.