FAO and leading Islamic charity group to work together to build resilience of vulnerable populations

FAO and the Kuwait-based International Islamic Charity Organization (IICO) agreed to step up their cooperation to help vulnerable populations better cope with natural disasters and other shocks, which are among the key drivers of acute food insecurity.

In a letter of intent signed by Mr. Bader Alsumait, IICO General Manager, and FAO Deputy Director-General Daniel J. Gustafson, the two organizations agree to explore options for partnering on three parallel tracks to assist countries and regions affected by disasters and crises better prepare for and manage food security challenges.

The three tracks are:

• Provision of humanitarian assistance. This will primarily involve work to restore agricultural assets in communities impacted by shocks as well as implementing social protection measures that put a “safety net” under vulnerable populations as they strive to rebound.
• Combating malnutrition in all its forms, with particular attention to vulnerable groups like women and children. FAO and IICO will explore a variety of means to reach this goal, including strengthening social protection and nutrition-sensitive agricultural development involving education, support for nutrition policy-making, kitchen gardens and backyard poultry farming, school feeding programs, and more.
• Promoting wider uptake of disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors. Here the focus will be on strengthening local capacities for risk reduction and disaster prevention before crises occur, as well as to effectively respond and lead recovery efforts after they take place.

"We welcome the signing of this Letter of Intent with FAO to cooperate in joint initiatives towards raising the level of resilience in affected and vulnerable communities and combating hunger and food insecurity,” said Dr. Abdullah Al-Matouq, IICO Chairman and Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General

Noting that IICO is emerging as a major humanitarian organization that the country where the IICO is based, Kuwait, is playing an important role in humanitarian affairs, FAO Deputy Director-General Gustafson added: “We appreciate enormously IICO’s commitment to resilience building as a core component of humanitarian and development action, and are looking forward to partnering with them to scale-up resilience programming regionally, and globally.”

The signing took place during the recent “High Level Event on Agriculture in Times of Crises,” convened by the Global Network against Food crises – an international alliance working to combat the most extreme forms of hunger.