Spain and FAO eye more collaboration on rural development

10 December 2019, Madrid – FAO Director-General QU Dongyu today met Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in talks that focused on strengthening future collaboration.

During their discussion, which took place on the side-lines of the COP25 climate summit, the FAO Director-General thanked the Prime Minister for Spain’s commitment to FAO and support for the Hand-in-Hand Initiative, which prioritizes targeted work that benefits people in the world’s most vulnerable regions.

Qu noted that FAO and Spain can work together to support Small Island Developing States, Least Developed Countries and Landlocked Developing Countries, and on digital agriculture, aquaculture, rural tourism and Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS).

The FAO Director-General and Prime Minister Sànchez stressed the important role of women and youth in agriculture and rural development and they discussed the great potential to improve farmers’ especially smallholders’ livelihood by introducing digital technologies to the agricultural sectors.