JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has made major contributions towards combating poverty, hunger and the effects of natural disasters on communities around the world, a senior Saudi representative at the UN has said. Sulafa Moussa, a member of the permanent delegation of Saudi Arabia to the UN and chairperson of the Third Committee on Social, Humanitarian and Cultural issues, was speaking at a high-level meeting at the UN to mark the 15th anniversary of the organization’s Central Emergency Response Fund. She said the Kingdom confirmed its willingness to respond to global humanitarian appeals and to support the efforts of the UN and programs such as the World Food Program aimed at preventing famine and drought in affected countries to save the lives of millions of people and children. UNCERF was launched to establish funding processes for humanitarian aid crises and help responders to deliver life-saving assistance whenever and wherever crises occur. Contributions for 2021 amounted to $592.4 million from 53 member and observer states, three international organizations and regional authorities, and two private sector and civil society bodies. Moussa said that the Kingdom continues to provide generous support to the World Health Organization to combat COVID-19. As well as direct support to several countries through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, the Kingdom extends its support to countries by assessing different situations through specialized project sectors such as food scarcity, health, humanitarian and emergency relief coordination, education, logistics and telecommunication. As of November 2021, KSrelief has 1,806 ongoing and completed projects alongside 144 partners for 77 beneficiary countries. Moussa said in her speech that Saudi Arabia continues to support humanitarian work and has never stood idly by amid the crises that the countries of the world are going through, some of them arising from wars and conflicts and some due to factors of nature, time and place. At the end of her speech, Sulaf Moussa stressed the Kingdom’s continued cooperation and support for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.