Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the government would launch the food for education programme for 20 lakh children this year in efforts to abate the rate of school dropouts.

The prime minister disclosed this to World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Josette Sheeran who met her on the sidelines of the World Summit on Food Security in Rome at the headquarters of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Tuesday evening. She said the food for education programme would mainly cover the food insecure areas where incidents of dropout occurred due to food crisis. She also sought continued WFP support to address access and nutrition problems and create a social safety net in the country, Prime Minister ‘s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad told newsmen after the meeting.

The prime minister expressed gratitude for the agreement reached with the Ministry of Health during the visit of the WFP deputy executive director last month. Hasina also shared her climate woes with the WFP executive when she said changing climate was putting adverse impact on the low lying and deltaic Bangladesh. The prime minister further appreciated the WFP’s strong focus on the ultra poor, the prime victims of the climate change, as being congruent with one the key tenets of Bangladesh’s national Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan. Hasina pointed out that the most vulnerable in society, including women and children, needed to be protected from the impacts of changing climate.

-Daily Star