AGFUND proposed the “Mechanisms of Microfinance” as an untraditional alternative for fighting Hunger all over the world

The Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND), chaired by HRH Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, had stressed its keenness on fighting hunger all over the world via the mechanisms of microfinance, on curbing poverty and also on improving the conditions of the needy segments. AGFUND adopts a developmental strategy that’s based on three main principals which are namely: financing projects worldwide without any differentiations, adopting projects – such as the banks for the poor – for the needy segments and conducting developmental partnerships. Within the framework of the third principal concerned with the “Partnerships”,AGFUND had studied the aspect of enhancing the developmental relations with the United Nations World Food Program, where in this regard, both organizations held a meeting on Monday, December 10, 2012 at AGFUND’s main headquarters in Riyadh. On Behalf of AGFUND, Nasser Bakr Alkahtani the Executive Director, Jebreen Aljebreen, Director of Projects Department and Abdul Latif Aldwaihy, Secretary General of AGFUND award and Media Director, have participated in the meeting; whereas the World Food Program was represented in the meeting by each of the Executive Director Kathren Kazeen, the Vice Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Amir Abdullah, Executive Director Assistant Romer Lopez and Bandr bin Abdulmohsen AlShalhoob, permanent representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, Muhammad Diab, Program Regional Manager  and Jawaher Atef, Responsible of Donor Relations at the world program. AGFUND’s Executive Director, Mr. Nasser Al Qahtani, had clarified that the meeting was indeed fruitful, in the sense that both parties discussed various visions for fighting poverty by untraditional methods. In this regard, AGFUND expressed its readiness to contribute in financing projects that aim towards fighting poverty through the untraditional alternatives which it had developed, which are namely the mechanisms of microfinance and banks for the poor which were established by AGFUND and are wide-spread throughout the whole region. Al Qahtani also added that the long cooperation between AGFUND and the United Nations Organizations helps make their common language clear enough which consequently helps in achieving the common targets within the set time-schedule and in timing suitable enough for the target segments.