Japan to fund food aid in the North via WFP

The Government of Japan will provide food grant assistance to the value of 240 million Japanese Yen (approximately Rs. 275 million) to the Government of Sri Lanka through the World Food Program (WFP) to support their ongoing emergency program in Sri Lanka including the School Meals Program.

The distribution of the food assistance will be supervised by the Government of Sri Lanka. From 2012 to 2014, the Government of Japan provided food grant assistance amounting to 500 million Japanese Yen to the Government of Sri Lanka through the WFP in order to sustain the Schools Meals Program.

“Good nutrition is a major factor in the physical as well as mental growth of children and supporting this program is of much importance to the welfare of Sri Lanka?s future generation,” the Japanese Embassy in Colombo said.

Under this food grant assistance, Japan will provide canned fish manufactured in the areas devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, which meets safety requirements, assisting greatly the local people there. The grant assistance will be mutually beneficial to both Japan and Sri Lanka. Japan hopes this assistance would strengthen the long-standing friendship between the two?countries.

The signing of the grant agreement took place in Rome on October 08th, 2015 between Kazuyoshi Umemoto, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Italy and Ramiro Lopes Da Silva, Assistant Executive Director, UN World Food Programme.