Ambassador Participates in WFP Regional Center Inauguration
June 21, 2007

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On June 21, Ambassador Charles L. Glazer, along with Salvadoran President Elias Antonio Saca, participated in the opening ceremony of the World Food Program’s Regional Center for Humanitarian Response.

The Center has been designed to function as a rapid disaster response facility for the handling, storage, and delivery of food aid, in support of the work of regional relief agencies in the event of tragedy striking the region of Central America.

The Center will be a key humanitarian hub for disaster response in Central America.  It will function as part of a broader WFP Latin America and Caribbean Emergency Response Network (LACERN), which includes a hub for non-food items in Panama and two other sub-regional depots, one in Barbados for the Caribbean and the other in Ecuador for the Andean Region.

 The United States is a major contributor to the project providing 25% of the total funding for the Regional Center and 40% of the budget for World Food Program’s global operations. The U.S. provided more than 1 billion to WFP worldwide activities in 2006.

“We all know that Central America is a region that is vulnerable to natural disasters.  We cannot prevent them, but we can be ready when they happen.  This Center will help,” said Ambassador Glazer. “I congratulate the government of El Salvador and the World Food Program for taking this important initiative that is so vital to the well-being of the Central America region,” he added.

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