SPAIN WILL CONSIDER ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE TO WFP

UNCLAS MADRID 001186 SIPDIS STATE FOR ONI BLAIR, SCA/P STATE PLEASE PASS USAID E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAGR EAID ECON ETRD IO PGOV PHUM PK PREF PREL SUBJECT: SPAIN WILL CONSIDER ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE TO WFP IN PAKISTAN IN 2010 REF: STATE 126694 ¶1. Post conveyed reftel appeal December 11 to MFA SubDirector General for Continental Asia Jose Luis Garcia Galan, who agreed to discuss the matter with colleagues at the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID). ¶2. AECID contacts, in response to the urgent appeal for short-term assistance to cover World Food Program shortfalls in 2010 in Pakistan, assured Post December 14 that Spain was following the situation "with interest" and would consider new contributions beginning in January 2010. According to the head of AECID's Emergency and Post-conflict Department in the Office of Humanitarian Action, Pablo Yuste Echarren, his office has dedicated 8.5 million Euros to the crisis, of which 4.5 million were designated for WFP activities. He confessed that AECID's 2009 budget was "practically exhausted," but agreed to review additional commitments in the new year. CHACON