The Global Environmental Facility and FAO: working together to minimize the impact of the agricultural sectors on the environment

20 September 2019, Washington DC – FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu and Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chair of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) agreed today for the need to strive towards the more efficient and speedier preparation and implementation of joint projects to make the best use of funds targeting the agricultural sectors of developing countries.

During their meeting, Ishii noted that GEF and FAO can scale up their work to minimize the impact of the agricultural sectors on the environment.

She and Qu agreed that through the partnership with FAO – which is one of GEF’s largest implementing agencies – farmers in developing countries can be helped to embed sustainability in their work so that they can focus, not just on maximizing yields, but also on safeguarding and making more efficient use of natural resources.

Qu said he hoped that GEF would support FAO’s new Hand-In-Hand Initiative, which prioritizes targeted work that benefits people in the world’s most vulnerable regions, including least developed and landlocked countries, as well as small island states.