Online Desk: World Food Programme (WFP) Country Representative Domenico Scalpelli and UN Women Country Representative Gitanjali Singh on Thursday met Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud and discussed areas of cooperation.

The Foreign Minister exchanged detailed views on food management and women development with the two country representatives of the UN agencies in separate meetings at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Minister Hasan invited the representative of the World Food Programme to undertake the seminar and motivational programmes encouraging people to consume crops and food produced in the country and to increase public awareness.

He also said there is no alternative to maximum use of arable land to maintain self-sufficiency in food grains and food security in Bangladesh, which has the highest population density and the lowest per capita land in the world.

The minister advised WFP to take innovative measures to avoid the loss of arable land.

WFP Country Representative Domenico Scalpelli said he would give utmost importance to the issues.

He presented to the Minister the future plans of his organisationtion’s food programme at the school level and for the Rohingyas.

Foreign Minister Hasan praised the school feeding program since 2011 and later WFP’s food aid program for the Rohingya.

In a meeting with the UN Women’s Representative in Bangladesh, the Foreign Minister highlighted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s strong commitment and her government’s achievements in gender equality and women’s empowerment.

He also highlighted the remarkable progress that Bangladesh has made in empowering women in the political and administrative spheres.

The Minister praised UN Women for being a trusted partner in this development journey.

UN Women Representative in Bangladesh Gitanjali Singh assured to increase UN Women’s cooperation with Bangladesh and congratulated the government for implementing its firm commitment.

The UN Women Representative also informed the Foreign Minister about preparations for celebrating the 30th anniversary of the ‘Beijing Declaration’ and the silver jubilee of the historic Resolution 1325 in 2025.