AAAID donates US$0.5 millions to UNRWA – UNRWA press release

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)

Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development

donates US$0.5 millions to UNRWA

Amman– The United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the Near East (UNRWA) has received a contribution of $0.5 millions from the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development (AAAID) for UNRWA’s Food Security programme in Gaza and the West Bank. This donation will enable UNRWA to purchase 465 metric tons (MT) of sugar and 270 MT of sunflower oil.

In a ceremony held this afternoon at the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman, an agreement for the contribution was signed by H.E. Mr. ElKheir Khalafalla Khalid, head of programme development of the AAAID, and the Deputy Commissioner General of UNRWA Mr. Filippo Grandi, who expressed his appreciation for the AAAID contribution which will support UNRWA’s activities in the West Bank and Gaza. UNRWA’s Director of External Relations, Mr. Rene Aquarone, as well as a number of senior UNRWA officials attended the ceremony.

UNRWA distributes food rations to the poorest of the refugees in the special hardship case category on a bi-monthly basis. The value of this relief assistance is about US$110 per person annually, and most of it is received as in-kind donations from donor governments in the form of basic foodstuffs such as flour, rice, sugar, milk and cooking oil.

AAAID was established in 1976 as an independent financial agricultural investment institution to contribute to the achievement of food security in the Arab world through the utilization and development of the financial, agricultural and human resource capabilities that are available in the Arab countries. The authority, which has its headquarters in Khartoum and a regional office in Dubai, includes in its membership 19 Arab countries.

In September 2006, the AAAID contributed $2m to UNRWA’s microfinance and microcredit programme in the West Bank and Gaza strip.

A relief and human development agency, UNRWA provides education, healthcare, social services and emergency aid to over 4.3 million refugees living in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab republic.

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For more information call Matar Saqer on +962-795- 605 553