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S. Korea, WFP cement ties to fight world hunger

June 10, 2015
(Courtesy of the World Food Program)

(Courtesy of the World Food Program)

SEOUL, June 10 (Yonhap) — South Korea on Wednesday held talks with the U.N. food aid agency on promoting partnerships in the global fight against hunger.

A six-member delegation from the World Food Program visited here for the first round of annual consultations between the two sides. It is led by Claudia von Roehl, head of the office of government partnerships at the Rome-based organization.

She held a meeting with Oh Yeoung-ju, director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s development cooperation bureau, discussing South Korea’s “Saemaeul Movement,” or new community movement.

The initiative was launched by South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s father, who was president in the 1970s. It is credited with helping modernize the then rural South Korean economy.

South Korea and the WFP formed a partnership last year to start similar initiatives in developing countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Rwanda and Tanzania.

“We agreed that the area of accountability and transparency and the area of performance indicators and outcome monitoring are important,” von Roehl told Yonhap News Agency after the meeting.

Also on the agenda was the WFP’s humanitarian assistance in Iraq and other major conflict-ridden areas and South Korea’s aid program there.

South Korea is an ardent supporter of the WFP’s campaign to achieve “zero hunger” in the world and one of the organization’s 20 largest government donors.

Ministry officials said the meeting focused on South Korea’s overall official development assistance program rather than specific food aid for North Korea.

The WFP delegation also paid a courtesy call on Rep. Na Kyung-won, chairwoman of the National Assembly’s foreign affairs committee, and attended a seminar on the zero hunger campaign hosted by the Korean Parliamentary League on Children, Population and Environment.

The WFP is the U.N.’s largest humanitarian aid arm, accounting for more than 60 percent of the world’s food assistance.

South Korea’s contributions to WFP operations globally reached US$31 million last year alone.