On 12 December 2018, Sweden, through the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), agreed to support FAO projects and programmes over the next four years with SEK 280 million (USD 31 million*). This contribution will bolster the FAO Medium Term Plan 2018-21 and related programme of work and budget, as well as specific programmes designed to enhance the livelihoods of rural women, youth and small-scale fishing communities, and promote the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.

Sweden committed SEK 148 million to the revitalized phase of FAO’s Flexible Multi-partner Mechanism** (FMM), a pooled mechanism established in 2010 as vehicle for partners willing to strengthen FAO’s work through flexible funding. This commitment will translate into transformative impacts in the FMM programmatic priority areas - priorities that were identified by Sweden and FAO together with other key resource partners and are fundamental to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sweden’s new contribution will advance efforts on SDG monitoring, gender equality and women’s empowerment, sustainable productivity growth in agriculture, the Voluntary Guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests in the context of national food security (VGGT), and the positive effect of migration, among others.