Riyadh - The Coordinating Council to follow up the joint financial contribution being provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to support and fund the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan (YHRP) for 2018 held its 2nd meeting at the headquarters of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) in Riyadh yesterday (Tuesday).
Participants in the meeting included KSrelief Assistant Supervisor General for Operations and Programs Ahmed Al-Beez; Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for Development for Development Affairs in the United Arab Emirates Sultan bin Mohammed Al Shamsi; World Food Program (WFP).
Representative and Country Director in Yemen Stephen Anderson; Director of WFP Office for GCC Mr. Abdul Majid Al-Yahiya; Representative of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Regional Foreign Affairs Relationships Chief Ahmed Mohsen; Representative for UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) at KSrelief, Jayne Mbakaya and WFP Representative Izumi Conway.
Moreover, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Liz Grande; WHO representative in Yemen Dr. Nuevo Zaghari and Representatives from UN agencies have also participated in the meeting via remote-communication.
The meeting discussed the developments of the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan in Yemen in 2018.
On the occasion, Eng. Ahmed Al-Beez said that the meeting came to follow up and evaluate the achievements of the programs and projects of the Saudi-UAE grant to Yemen amounting to $ 930 million, provided in response to the largest appeal launched by humanitarian agencies to Yemen.
WFP Office Director for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for Arab States, Abdul Majid Yahiya, said in a press statement that he was pleased with his first visit to KSrelief, pointing out that cooperation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the World Food Program dated back to the sixties and culminated in 2008 with a generous contribution from the Kingdom to the program of 500 million dollars which is the largest donation received by the Program from a country in the world at the time, adding that the Kingdom supports the WFP relief operations in various countries in the world, especially in Yemen, Syria, Bangladesh and South Sudan.