ABU DHABI // Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of International Cooperation and Development, has told an international conference that the UAE is continuing to provide aid in an effort to eradicate world hunger.
Speaking in Rome at a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (Fao) awards ceremony, Sheikha Lubna said humanitarian aid was distributed under the directives of President Sheikh Khalifa, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
The ceremony was held to recognise the efforts made by countries around the world to reach the millennium development goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of hungry people by this year, or bringing it below a 5 per cent threshold.
A majority – 72 out of 129 – of the countries monitored by the FAO, including the UAE, have achieved the MDG target.
Sheikha Lubna recalled that the UAE founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed, once said: “Give me agriculture and I will give you civilisation.”
“The UAE has achieved the goal to halve the number of hungry people, as laid out by governments at the World Food Summit,” she said.
The effort, she said, was in line with the country’s commitments to international development.
Since its establishment in 1971, the UAE has adopted a strategy to close the food gap despite the harsh climate, and has succeeded in developing its agricultural and food sectors, Sheikha Lubna said.
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