Acting Executive Director of World Food Programme (WFP), Carl Skau, has reiterated the agency’s commitment to providing food assistance to 1.3 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, calling the ongoing crisis one of WFP’s top global priorities.

Skau made the remarks during a meeting with Chief Adviser, Professor Muhammad Yunus, held on Tuesday at a hotel in Rome, Italy.

According to Deputy Press Secretary to Chief Adviser, Abul Kalam Azad Majumder, the discussion primarily focused on the Rohingya refugee crisis, famine conditions in Gaza and Sudan and the growing difficulty of securing adequate funding to address global hunger, which affects tens of millions worldwide.

Skau commended Professor Yunus for his leadership over the past 15 months and praised his efforts to draw renewed international attention to the plight of Rohingyas.

He specifically lauded the high-level UN meeting on the Rohingya issue, held on September 30 at Yunus’s initiative, which he said succeeded in refocusing global concern on the crisis.

“It was an important meeting. We must ensure it remains high on the international agenda,” Skau emphasized.

Both leaders agreed on the urgent need to increase funding for humanitarian support to Rohingyas living in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char.

They also discussed avenues for securing support from new donors, including wealthier nations and multilateral institutions.

Skau noted that following recent aid pledges from the United States and the United Kingdom, made during the UN meeting in New York, WFP will continue disbursing the monthly $12 food stipend to each Rohingya refugee.

Professor Yunus expressed gratitude for WFP’s global leadership in the fight against hunger and thanked the agency for its support in launching a new school feeding initiative in Bangladesh.

“Several Asian countries have made remarkable progress in school feeding. We want to follow suit with a focus on quality and gradual expansion,” said the Chief Adviser.

The meeting also touched on broader global hunger concerns.

Skau mentioned WFP’s ongoing efforts to deliver humanitarian aid into Gaza, where food insecurity continues to rise and noted that nearly 300 million people globally are now facing hunger.

Among those present at the meeting were Food Adviser Ali Imam Majumder, Fisheries and Livestock Adviser Farida Akhter, SDG Affairs Principal Coordinator Lamiya Morshed and Foreign Secretary Asad Alam Siam.