WFP to boost partnership with Korea
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Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, right, shakes hands with Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), after initialing a partnership framework agreement in a ceremony held at the foreign ministry’s headquarters in Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap
By Chung Hyun-chae
Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), initialed a partnership framework agreement between Korea and the U.N. agency Thursday.
Cousin discussed with Yun how to provide more food aid to North Korea. She arrived in Seoul for a two-day visit after traveling to the impoverished North from May 19 to 21.
Ewha Womans University will confer an honorary degree on Cousin today.
“We have decided to present the degree to Madam Cousin in recognition of her efforts to ensure stable food security to reduce poverty around world,” university President Kim Sun-uk said. “It is especially meaningful in that the WFP is the major institution providing food aid to North Korea.”
Cousin has worked in a variety of public and private sector positions related to combating hunger in the aftermath of disasters. She is ranked 49th on Forbes magazine’s List of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.
Along with the conferment ceremony on the school’s campus in Seoul, Ewha professors and students are to participate in a ceremony to support a WFP project called the “Zero Hunger Challenge.”