The Director General of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), Mahmoud Al-Futaisi, met with representatives of the World Food Program (WFP) in the presence of Kate Newton, Deputy Regional Director of the World Food Programme, Assistant Deputy Regional Director of the World Food Programme, Peter Allen, and Director of the Country Office of the World Food Programme, Maysa Gharbawi, and Deputy Director of the World Food Programme Country Office, Yasuo Yuki Misawa.
Speaking exclusively to Libya Herald, Director General of the NESDB Al-Futaisi stated that the meeting was to discuss the current status of the memorandum of understanding concluded between the NESDB and the WFP, as well as the proposed aspects of support for each of the food security project and the social protection project in Libya.
Al-Futaisi added that among the strategies developed by the NESDB, drawing its features and ways to apply it by the government and the concerned authorities, is the national food security project and the social protection project in Libya. This is so that all the NESDB’s projects can be complete and to cover all applicable aspects. To this end, the door was opened for international organizations to benefit from their experiences in other countries of the world within these strategies that will be implemented in Libya with good standards to reach the set goals.
He stressed the importance of cooperation with regional and international organizations and bodies, such as the WFP, which provides the necessary assistance and advice to all countries of the world to implement programmes that ensure the provision of healthy food for all people. Equally, by supporting strategies to achieve self-sufficiency in food at home by motivating farmers to combine their efforts in cultivating the most important crops that constitute the basic food for the Libyan citizen, such as wheat.
But also by drawing up a plan for the concerned government agencies to provide the largest quantities of adequate food that could not be provided from internal agriculture to be stored for months through economic mechanisms in which the private sector contributes greatly.