An agreement was signed between the Ministry of Finance’s Economic Relations Division (ERD) and the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently to implement a project titled “Support for Modelling, Planning and Improving Dhaka’s Food System”.
The agreement was signed by Monowar Ahmed, secretary of ERD and Robert D Simpson, FAO representative at ERD’s office in the city. Harry Verweij, the Netherlands’ ambassador to Bangladesh, was also present as a special guest.
The Dutch government will provide financial support of $12.5 million as a grant to FAO to implement project with Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives (LGRD) as the lead government counterpart over a five-year period.
The project will develop a safe, sustainable and resilient food system for the Dhaka metropolitan area through an iterative action learning approach, which will be achieved through development of the systems model on food distribution, development of a strategic food agenda 2030 and interventions to improve the performance of the food system.
Special emphasis will be placed on the role of women and indigenous peoples to explore and evaluate alternative strategies to improve access to safe, healthy, nutritious food.
“Most health hazards in Bangladesh are associated with food behaviour and food-borne diseases, and it happens due to improper handling of food supply chain,” said Verweij.
Monowar Ahmed said that it is very crucial to address problems associated with the Dhaka’s food quality.
Sultana Afroz, additional secretary (UN) at ERD and other top officials were also present during the ceremony.
