With the announcement, Ireland's overall financing for the scheme now stands at €105 million. Charlie McConalogue, the Minister of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine, is touring Africa this week. This is Ireland's largest-ever donation to the WFP.

The biggest humanitarian institution in the world, the UN World Food Programme provides life-saving food aid to areas devastated by violence, instability, and climate change. Ireland has long been a donor to the programme.

Minister McConalogue visited many WFP initiatives in Africa during his St. Patrick's Week tour, including a 200,000-person refugee camp in Kenya.

The minister stated that the number of people experiencing acute food insecurity has sharply grown due to violence and climatic shocks in Africa and that Ireland's enhanced assistance will allow the World Food Programme to continue meeting their requirements.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, the minister stated that the UN World Food Programme's work is “massively important,” noting that many people are living “hand to mouth” and that the program's food is their sole source of nutrition.

He stated that he intended to travel to regions of Africa where the World Food Programme (WFP) to do some of the “key work” as part of the St. Patrick's Day excursion.