The Government has pledged €10 million to a UN emergency fund today.
Speaking at the opening of the Gorta World Food Day conference Minister of State for Development Cooperation and Human Rights, Conor Lenihan, said: " Last weekend's earthquake in Pakistan served to a remind us of the need to equip the United Nations system to respond quickly and comprehensively to major humanitarian emergencies."
The UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), has been in place for some time as a loan mechanism for humanitarian response. It is planned that CERF will be revised to permit access to UN agencies on a grant basis.
"I think it is important, at this stage, to signal Ireland's support for the reform process, as a number of other major donors have done including Sweden and the UK, by pledging substantial funding," added Mr Lenihan
World Food Day is an international event that aims to raise the issue of world hunger and highlights the fact that 840 million people around the world will go to bed hungry each night.
This year's World Food Day theme is "agriculture and intercultural dialogue" and reflects on the contribution of different cultures to world agriculture and the fight against hunger.
A statement by Gorta said: "At the start of the millennium, 2.57 billion people, close to half the entire world's population, depend on agriculture, hunting, fishing or forestry for their livelihoods, still so many people go to bed hungry each night."
Gorta has funded almost 2,000 long-term development projects that help local communities to help themselves, mostly across Africa, and encourages the development of skills and learning between cultures.