European Union, Guardian newspaper, Indian NGO win FAO awards

11 June 2013, Rome - The European Union (EU) and British newspaper The Guardian have won FAO awards, the EU for a €1 billion initiative in response to the food price crisis in 2008-2011, and The Guardian, for improving worldwide understanding of development issues.

The EU shares its award with Indian NGO Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), honoured for its innovative and dedicated efforts to lift extremely poor women out of poverty and hunger.

The EU received the FAO Jacques Diouf Award for its "EU Food Facility", an initiative that has improved the livelihoods of over 59 million people in 49 developing countries through the improvement of smallholder agricultural production in response to high food prices.

The Guardian global development team won for its reporting on agriculture, food security and poverty, with emphasis on progress made towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

The team receives the FAO A.H. Boerma Award, which is presented biennially to a journalist or journalists who have helped to focus public attention on the world food problem.

The awards will be presented on Saturday 15 June at 14:30 at the start of the 38^th FAO Conference, the Organization's governing body. José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, is expected to accept the award in person on behalf of the EU.

SEWA is an Indian NGO helping women through the integrated provision of agricultural extension, financial, literacy, education, care, housing, and health services.

Other awards

The Kenya Forest Service has won an FAO award for its implementation of the Sustainable livelihood development project in the Mau forest complex.

The service receives the Edouard Saouma Award, which is presented to the institution or institutions that have implemented with particular efficiency a project funded by FAO's Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP).

The Organización del Sector Pesquero y Acuícola del Istmo Centroamericano has won the Margarita Lizárraga Medal 2012-2013 for its significant contribution to sustainable fisheries and aquaculture development and to the practical and tangible application of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries in the Central American countries.

Three FAO field officers with the most outstanding contribution to the advancement of their country or countries of assignment have received B.R. Sen Awards.

The award for 2011 is shared by project manager David Doolan, who through his technical expertise, leadership and ability to keep operations going despite a difficult environment lifted whole communities out of poverty in Pakistan, and senior forestry officer Patrick Durst for contributions to forestry over his 19-year career in the Asia-Pacific region.

The 2012 Sen Award goes to Luca Alinovi, Senior Emergency and Rehabilitation Coordinator and Officer in Charge of FAO Somalia, for outstanding leadership, innovative approaches and a major upscaling of operations in famine-torn Somalia.