Under the theme of “African Football Against Hunger”, the Regional Office For The Near East of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO/RNE) and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) will hold a press conference at 10:30 a.m. on Monday the 12th of October 2009 at the premises of FAO/RNE (11, El-Eslah El-Zerai Street, Dokki – Next to the Agricultural Museum)

The press conference will be hosted by FAO and chaired by FAO-Representative to Egypt and FAO/RNE Officer-in-Charge Mr. Abdessalam OuldAhmed, TeleFood Coordinator for the Near East and North Africa at FAO/Rome Mr. Ismail AbouZid and Deputy General Secretary of CAF Mr. Hicham El Amrani.

FAO and CAF believe that the power of football and its attraction and influence on millions of spectators is one of the best tools to convey FAO’s message to the world within the context of TeleFood campaign to fight against global hunger.

Under the terms of the agreement, the CAF will promote a series of initiatives together with FAO, involving its affiliated members and professional football players to increase public awareness on issues of food security and advocate for the small-scale projects, which TeleFood programme implements to fight against hunger and poverty, which one sixth of the world population suffer from.

CAF and FAO will announce joint activities in 2009 and 2010 to be implemented through various platforms, including the organisations’ respective official websites.

It is worth to note that FAO had signed cooperation agreements with the global football governing bodies. CAF was the first confederation ever that had signed this agreement with FAO on the 5th of March 2008, followed by the European Professional Football League and the South American Confederation (COMNEBOL) in the same year. The Asian Football Confederation will also sign a similar cooperation agreement with FAO on the 18th of November 2009.