Read-out of the bilateral meeting between FAO Director-General QU Dongyu and Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, Supervisor General of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief)

28 June 2021, Rome - The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu today met Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, the Supervisor General of KSrelief at FAO Headquarters to discuss ongoing collaboration and avenues of strengthening and scaling it up in the future.

The Director-General welcomed the Supervisor General and expressed appreciation for the excellent cooperation between FAO and KSrelief in supporting the most vulnerable.

The Director-General congratulated the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its leadership for the success in guiding KSrelief to become a major global humanitarian player in less than six years since its establishment.

The Supervisor General of KSrelief highlighted the importance of FAO's mandate and FAO's key role in supporting the developmental and emergency needs of many countries. 

The two sides agreed to expand their cooperation, focusing on concrete areas of collaboration that support the needs of recipient countries. This includes long-term and resilience development management, including through the Hand-in-Hand initiative. The Director-General alluded to the need for capacity building and training activities in the recipient countries and invited KSrelief to benefit from FAO’s longstanding expertise in that context.

FAO and KSrelief are finalizing a joint-cooperation program for the next five years. 

The Supervisor General thanked the Director-General for the fruitful discussion and invited him to visit the headquarters of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre in Riyadh.