UN food agency director hails Saudi Arabia’s ‘most important’ aid efforts in Yemen

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Yemen is ‘unfortunately going to have the biggest impact because you are already looking at an economy that’s anemic, a population that has almost no buying power. (AFP)
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WFP Country Director in Yemen Richard Ragan speaking to Arab News. (AN photo Ali Mohammad Aldhahri)
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Updated 11 May 2022
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UN food agency director hails Saudi Arabia’s ‘most important’ aid efforts in Yemen

  • Truce gives hope for future with Yemen at crossroads after 7 years of war: World Food Program’s Richard Ragan

RIYADH: The UN World Food Program’s representative in Yemen has hailed crucial Saudi efforts in helping the organization to meet the war-torn country’s urgent sustenance needs.

In an exclusive interview, Richard Ragan told Arab News that the Kingdom had played a vital part in maintaining food supplies to the Yemeni people.

The country director said: “The role of Saudi Arabia is one of the most important if not the most important, it’s a neighbor. So clearly, it’s in the interest of Saudi Arabia to have a stable border.

“The humanitarian assistance that we have been provided with by the Saudis in the past has been critical. They are essential in terms of financial partner, humanitarian partner, political partner.




WFP Country Director in Yemen Richard Ragan speaking to Arab News. (AN photo by Ali Mohammad Aldhahri)

“We really can’t do the kind of program that we need to effectively run in Yemen without the partnership with Saudi Arabia. So that’s why I am in the Kingdom. It’s the first country I have visited since I took charge three months ago. For me, it’s the most important place,” he added.

Ragan also singled out the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center for special praise.

He said: “KSrelief is important in the humanitarian world; they are unique. Most of our partners just give money, but the KSrelief is different; they do projects. They are present in Yemen and very knowledgeable about the dynamics that are going on, particularly in the southern part of the strife-torn country.”

The UN official noted that the WFP viewed the center important in two ways, “as partners to do the work, who are very knowledgeable about how to execute effective programs, and also as very good financial partners.”




Richard Ragan noted that among major donor countries, Saudi Arabia had always been one of the most generous. (Supplied)

He added: “After seven years of war, nothing works in Yemen, the state has in many ways ceased to function. So, without the kind of work that KSrelief does in the healthcare sector, millions of people would go without healthcare. So, it’s one of the real fundamental things.”

On the current situation in Yemen, he said: “For the UN World Food Program, we are feeding slightly over half of Yemen’s population. For us, it’s the biggest program in the world, it’s the biggest program that, historically, WFP has ever run. So, the scale of what we have been trying to do, to keep people alive with food in Yemen, is pretty immense.”

Ragan noted that he had been living in Yemen for three months. “But the one thing I think that is most evident is that there is hope because of the truce. I think Yemen is at a crossroads after seven years of war. And that crossroads is either to return to war, strife, and conflict or to take the other path and move toward peace.

“We really can’t do the kind of program that we need to effectively run in Yemen without the partnership with Saudi Arabia. So that’s why I am in the Kingdom. It’s the first country I have visited since I took charge three months ago. For me, it’s the most important place”

Richard Ragan, UN World Food Program’s representative in Yemen

“So far, it seems like the truce is holding; there are small incidents where there’s conflict. There was an unfortunate attack three days ago in Taiz, where people were celebrating, a building was attacked next to a park, and some people were killed. That’s the sort of thing that’s not good for a truce,” he added.

He pointed out the progress of confidence-building measures negotiated between parties in the UN.

“Fuel ships are discharging in the port, so that the gas shortages that were evident from Jan. 1 through to the end of March have abated, which for us at the WFP was also critical because we weren’t really able to do our work without fuel.”

A two-month ceasefire was announced in April as agreed by warring parties in Yemen.

Ragan said: “We needed fuel, so that part of the puzzle has been answered. I would say our ability to kind of function in the country and deliver food, even during the conflict, has been pretty good. We are feeding between 10 and 15 million people per month.”

In addition to providing people with food, he highlighted the work going on to run the airport for humanitarian needs.

“We have something called the UN humanitarian air service, including for NGO (non-governmental organization) partners and UN agencies. It’s a really big part of what air traffic is going into the country. We also have vessels that we move back and forth from Jeddah that carry humanitarian supplies for people.

“We do a broad range of things that aren’t just about food. We run the telecommunication services for the UN agencies and NGO partners. So, it’s big and it’s an expensive program for the WFP.

“It’s about the equivalent of $200 million per month to do our complete body of work. The funding, part of our operations this year, has not been as generous. So far, we have raised 25 percent of what we need. So, we have to start cutting rations into groups,” he added.

Ragan noted that among major donor countries, Saudi Arabia had always been one of the most generous, besides the US and Germany. “The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) states have been there with us so far, and we are hopeful that it’s coming pretty soon for the future.”

The UN’s Humanitarian Response Plan, recently announced for this year, was seeking around $4 billion in contributions, of which the WFP makes up half.

He said: “In previous years, we have made up more than half of it because food is clearly the most important, and we are feeding people, we bring in wheat in the port. We mill it as fast as we get it. And then it’s out, so we don’t even have stocks that we can store. The requirements are so big.

“I have been in the WFP for 22 years and have managed some of our biggest operations in the world, but nowhere nearly as big and complicated as what we are doing in Yemen.”

Ragan pointed out that the conflict in Ukraine was having an impact on the entire world.

“Yemen is, unfortunately, one of the places that it’s going to have the biggest impact because you are already looking at an economy that’s anemic, you are looking at a population that has almost no buying power. There are over 4 million people who have been internally displaced because of the conflict.

“My most urgent message to the world is please don’t forget Yemen. It’s still one of the potentially biggest catastrophes on the planet. The world’s attention is shifted to Ukraine. But don’t forget Yemen because there is a real opportunity for peace.

“This is the first time since the conflict started, where there is more hope for peace, the people that I have talked to, that’s what they want.

“Certainly, the citizens of Yemen want it. They are tired of conflict, they are tired of bombings, they want to be able to educate their kids, and they want to be able to visit their relatives.

“They are desperate to be able to move, just to do the basic things that we enjoy that they can’t. So, I think there is a lot of hope on the part of the average Yemeni that this conflict is going to stop,” Ragan added.


Saudi Arabia’s NEOM gigaproject a ‘generational investment,’ minister says

Updated 57 min 57 sec ago
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Saudi Arabia’s NEOM gigaproject a ‘generational investment,’ minister says

  • The world’s top oil exporter has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into development projects through the kingdom’s $925 billion sovereign fund

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s NEOM gigaproject, a futuristic region being built in the desert, is a “generational investment” with a long timeline, the country’s investment minister told Reuters on Monday, adding that foreign investment will pick up pace.
“NEOM was not meant to be a two-year investable opportunity. If anybody expected NEOM to be foreign investment in two, three or five years, then they have gotten (it) wrong — it’s a generational investment,” Minister Khalid Al-Falih said on the sidelines of the World Investment Conference in Riyadh.
“The flywheel is starting and it will gain speed as we go forward, as some of the foundational assets come to the market,” he said.
The world’s top oil exporter has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into development projects through the kingdom’s $925 billion sovereign fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), as it undergoes an economic agenda dubbed Vision 2030 to cut dependence on fossil fuels.
NEOM, a Red Sea urban and industrial development nearly the size of Belgium that is meant to eventually house 9 million people, is central to Vision 2030. Saudi Arabia has scaled back some lofty ambitions to prioritize completing elements essential to hosting global sporting events over the next decade as rising costs weigh, sources told Reuters earlier this month. NEOM announced this month its long-time chief executive, Nadhmi Al-Nasr, had stepped down, without giving further details.
Asked what effect the departure would have on investors, the minister said the executive had done “a respectable job” but that “there is a time for everybody to pass on the baton.”
Asked if PIF will continue to do much of the spending on NEOM until more foreign funds come in, Al-Falih said it was not binary.
“I think foreign investors are starting to come to NEOM, they’re starting to channel capital. Some of the projects that the PIF will be doing will be financed through global capital pools, through some alternative and private capital. That’s taking place as we speak,” he said.
“So I urge you not to look at NEOM as being 100 percent PIF and then suddenly there will be a cliff and it will go private.”
Saudi Arabia, which is racing to attract $100 billion in annual foreign direct investment by the turn of the decade — reaching about a quarter of that in 2023 — has recently seen more co-investment deals between state entities and foreign investors.
“It’s always been the intent,” Al-Falih said of foreign inflows alongside state funds.
He noted that foreign investors were at times “still looking, still examining, still sometimes questioning,” but that now there was confidence in the profitability of investment opportunities and that “the risk-return trade-offs are very, very fair and positive to them.”


Saudi crown prince extends condolences to Kuwaiti counterpart on death of Sheikh Mohammed Abdulaziz Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah

Updated 26 November 2024
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Saudi crown prince extends condolences to Kuwaiti counterpart on death of Sheikh Mohammed Abdulaziz Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah

RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent a cable of condolences to Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah on the passing of Sheikh Mohammed Abdulaziz Hamoud Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah.
In the cable, the crown prince extended his deepest sympathy to Sheikh Sabah and the family of the deceased.


Saudi tech diplomat meets Iraqi PM to discuss digital cooperation

Updated 25 November 2024
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Saudi tech diplomat meets Iraqi PM to discuss digital cooperation

  • Deemah Al-Yahya, head of the multilateral Digital Cooperation Organization, commended Iraq’s investment in human capital as driver for growth and expansion of digital economy
  • Iraq has been working in recent years to develop a strategy for digital transformation to help support the private and public sectors and grow the economy

RIYADH: Saudi senior tech diplomat Deemah AlYahya, the secretary-general of the multilateral Digital Cooperation Organization, held talks on Monday with Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, about support for Baghdad’s plans to develop its digital business and artificial intelligence sectors.

They discussed Iraq’s strategy for digital transformation, and the need to create and develop a workforce with the tech skills required to help grow the Iraqi economy effectively, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Though Iraq is not a member of the DCO, an international body that focuses on the digital economy, Al-Sudani said his country is keen to work with the organization to meet the nation’s needs for a skilled workforce in the business sector.

AlYahya commended Iraq for the progress it has already made in terms of investment in the human capital needed to develop the digital skills that are essential to drive growth in a digitized economy.

Iraq has been working in recent years to develop a strategy for digital transformation to help support the private and public sectors and grow the economy. Authorities this month organized the first Digital Space Iraq Forum, which focused on the use of advanced technologies, including AI, to help build a comprehensive digital economy.

The DCO says that since it was founded in November 2020, it has been at the forefront of efforts to curate policies and initiatives to support the digital economy in several countries. Currently, 16 nations are members, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh and Oman. It also has 39 observer partner organizations.

DCO member states have a collective gross domestic product of $3.5 trillion and serve a combined market of nearly 800 million people, more than 70 percent of whom are under the age of 35.


Saudi FM pushes for regional stability at G7-Arab foreign ministers meeting

Updated 25 November 2024
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Saudi FM pushes for regional stability at G7-Arab foreign ministers meeting

  • In his address, Prince Faisal highlighted the ongoing crises in Gaza and Lebanon

RIYADH: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan took part in an expanded session of the second meeting between G7 foreign ministers and their counterparts from Arab nations on Monday, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The meeting was hosted in Italy under the theme “Together for the Stability of the Middle East.”

The session, which addressed pressing regional and international challenges, was held with the participation of Saudi, Jordanian, Emirati, Qatari and Egyptian officials, as well as the secretary-general of the Arab League.

In his address, Prince Faisal emphasized the importance of strengthening partnerships to address these challenges effectively.

He highlighted the ongoing crises in Gaza and Lebanon, urging the international community to act immediately to secure a ceasefire, facilitate unrestricted humanitarian aid, and progress toward establishing an independent Palestinian state.

He also called for respect for Lebanon’s sovereignty, and renewed international efforts to resolve the crisis in Sudan and alleviate the resulting human suffering.

The meeting was also attended by Prince Faisal bin Sattam bin Abdul Aziz, Saudi ambassador to Italy, the SPA reported.


Scientists awarded for sustainable water innovation at Saudi conference

Updated 25 November 2024
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Scientists awarded for sustainable water innovation at Saudi conference

  • Research aims to improve desalination efficiency
  • Makkah’s deputy emir in attendance

JEDDAH: Scientists were awarded prizes for their work in researching desalination and wastewater treatment technologies during an event in Jeddah on Monday.

The third edition of the Innovation-Driven Water Sustainability Conference was attended by 480 experts, scientists, researchers, specialists and 40 leading organizations in the water sector, from 20 countries.

The grand prize — the Global Prize for Innovation in Desalination 2024 — went to Lee Nuang Sim from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University for his project “uncovering the power of centrifugal reverse osmosis,” and Sue Mecham, CEO of NALA Membranes, for her project “chlorine stable new membranes for sustainable desalination and wastewater treatment/reuse.”

Visitors attend the third Innovation-Driven Water Sustainability Conference in Jeddah on Nov. 25, 2024. (Supplied)

Mecham, from North Carolina, US, spoke to Arab News after receiving her award, saying: “We are honored to be selected for the Global Prize for Innovation in Desalination 2024. Our mission is to bring new membranes to market and reduce the cost and complexity of water purification.”

Meanwhile, Saudi Ghadeer Al-Balawi from the University of Tabuk was another one of this year’s prizewinners with her project “novel heterogeneous catalysts for improving wastewater treatment plants in Saudi Arabia.”

Al-Balawi told Arab News: “I am incredibly honored to be one of the recipients of the Global Prize for Innovation in Desalination 2024. This recognition means so much to me. This project has been conducted at the University of Sheffield with hard work and dedication with the assistance of my supervisor, Dr. Marco Conte.”

The event’s opening ceremony was attended by Makkah Deputy Emir Prince Saud bin Mishal and Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Abdulmohsen Al-Fadley, as well as other senior officials.

Following the opening, Abdullah Al-Abdulkarim, chairman of the Saudi Water Authority, said that the event reflects the Kingdom’s commitment to promoting scientific and research innovation as a pillar for achieving water sustainability and security.

Through the conference, the SWA aims to share the impact of innovation in promoting the sustainable supply of water, according to SWA spokesperson Sultan Al-Rajhi.

“This conference discusses the latest global practices and innovative solutions in the water industry, with the participation of experts, scientists and specialists, who emphasize the pivotal role of innovation in accelerating the future prosperity of water and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals for water and the environment,” he said.

The two-day conference will continue to feature discussions on more than 180 research papers, as well as a water hackathon organized by the Saudi Water Innovation Center.