Distinguished Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia Ms. Andreasyan,

Esteemed WFP Director School feeding, Ms. Burbano,

Esteemed SIFI Director, Mr. Chernigov,

Dear friends and colleagues,

School Feeding Projects initiated by WFP back in the 1960s have fully proven their effectiveness and today considered to be one of the most successful and promising directions of the Programme’s work.

WFP is implementing school feeding projects, providing food to more than 17 million children annually in almost 60 countries. By implementing these projects, the Agency is making an important contribution to achieving multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals. First of all, they help to reduce the number of hungry people in the world, achieve universal primary education and promote gender equality. In addition, they contribute to alleviate the burden of poverty, lower the level of child morbidity and mortality, and scale down child labor. Moreover, these projects allow to pull children out from the street gangs, criminal and even terrorist groups.

We consider School feeding programmes as a traditional sphere of interaction between Russia and the WFP. Only this year the Government of the Russian Federation has issued a number of decrees in support of school-feeding activities in Tajikistan - 11,2 million USD for 2020-23, Syria – 20 mln USD for 2020-21, Jordan – 2,2 mln USD for 2020-22 and for the first time for Latin American region, namely Cuba and Nicaragua, - 10 mln USD for 2020-2023.

In line with Russian National priorities for the development of multifaceted cooperation with the CIS Member States, our country regularly allocates contributions to the WFP fund for the implementation of the school feeding programme in Armenia. The assistance of the Russian Federation granted Armenia an opportunity to begin to elaborate a long-term, systemic solution to this problem on a national scale. Besides that it allowed to obtain resources to provide food for the schoolchildren.

The school feeding programme in Armenia, launched in September 2010, is focused on increasing the accessibility of education and improving the health of schoolchildren. Its second dimension is to boost the local agricultural production, thus contributing to the social and economic development of the country. The project in Armenia was the first Russian-funded school feeding project that set off a long-term and effective interaction between our country and the WFP on this track.

The planned transfer of the program under the control of the Government of Armenia in 2023 will lead to independent and more efficient provision of the needs of schools in agricultural products. It will render food availability for the most vulnerable segments of the population of the Republic of Armenia.

In 2019, Russia provided additional 18 million USD as a voluntary contribution to the WFP fund to support the implementation of the Fourth phase of the School Feeding Project in Armenia in 2019-2023.

In addition, we have a new challenge - the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh (NK). The newly created Russian Interdepartmental Center for Humanitarian Response in Stepanakert is already providing assistance to the population of NK and the returnees. There are also problems with refugees in the territory of Armenia.

The Russian Social and Industrial Foodservices Institute (SIFI) is acting as the contractor implementing the projects on the Russian side. It has proven a high level of competence and efficiency in the implementation of projects within the CIS.

In the light of the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit in 2021, we have already begun our work to popularize school feeding programmes as a common and essential contribution to global food security. Moreover, this year's Nobel Peace Prize Award to the WFP has demonstrated global recognition of its efforts «to combat hunger and its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas». And today’s event is another manifestation of the importance of this work.

Thank You!