The Global Logistics Center of the World Food Programme (WFP), located in Puerto de la Luz in Las Palmas (Canary Islands), is part of the Network of Humanitarian Response Depositories of the United Nations (UNHR), a hub of overall support that can cater for any humanitarian crisis on the globe in less than 48 hours.
The Spanish Cooperation has funded the creation of this logistics base that will serve mainly populations affected by humanitarian crises in West Africa.
The official inauguration was attended by the Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Ertharin Cousin, and the Spanish Ministers of Industry, Energy and Tourism, José Manuel Soria; Development, Ana Pastor; Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, José Manuel García-Margallo, and the Secretary General of International Development Cooperation, Gonzalo Robles, as well as a large group of African Ambassadors accredited in Spain.
The new Logistics Base is part of a network managed by WFP and includes five other centers in Italy, Ghana, Panama, Dubai and Malaysia. With the addition of Las Palmas, the network will have the capacity to meet the victims of humanitarian crisis occurring anywhere around the globe within a maximum period of 48 hours.