UNIDO and FAO working closely to boost development efforts in Africa

28 August 2019, Yokohama – The heads of FAO and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) today reaffirmed their respective Organizations’ aim to work closely together to intensify joint development efforts in Africa. Director-General Qu Dongyu met his UNIDO counterpart Li Yong at FAO’s Liaison Office in the Japanese city.

The two UN agency heads acknowledged the importance to step up actions and mobilize resources to reduce poverty in Africa, noting that out of the 47 Least Developed Countries in the world, 33 are in Africa.

“We need to improve and increase trainings provided to young farmers. In tropical areas, we need more infrastructure to facilitate logistics and transport. And more importantly, we need to ensure that agriculture will lead to the production of nutritious food,” said Qu Dongyu.

UNIDO and FAO will collaborate on a joint Strategic Action Plan to support agro-industry in Africa and are launching, together with other partners, the Flagship Initiative to Accelerate Youth Employment in Agriculture in Africa.