News

1 December 2016, Nairobi – FAO will support the new initiative on Triangular Cooperation of the Global Partnerships for Effective Development Cooperation, initiated by Mexico and Canada. A working group will work at political and operational levels to ensure that triangular programming is grounded on the core principles of effectiveness. The Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation recognized South-South and Triangular Cooperation “as an increasingly potent feature of international cooperation for development”, in its Second High-Level Meeting held these days in Nairobi. The Global Partnership is therefore joining the main international cooperation frameworks to recognize the effectiveness of these forms of cooperation...

Budapest, Hungary – The Director-General met today with Hungarian Minister for Agriculture Sandor Fazekas, on the margins of the Regional Symposium on Agroecology for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems in Europe and Central Asia.

28 November 2016, Addis Ababa - The African Union Commission (AUC) convened a group of stakeholders, including Regional Economic Communities (RECs), development partners and academia at the AUC premises in Addis Ababa to discuss an assessment report for the establishment of an “African Union Centre of Best Practices for Food Security (AU-CBPFS)”.  The idea of the centre emerged from the Malabo Implementation Strategy and Road Map which recommended the establishment of Centre of Excellence to contribute to the vision of Africa’s Agricultural Transformation. Facilitated by FAO and the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), the two-day assessment examined a cross-section of existing Centres...

28 November 2016, Rome - Mongolia and FAO will work more closely together to promote international partnerships and exchanges that support sustainable agriculture in the East Asian country, the UN agency said today. A new agreement, signed by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and Mongolia's agriculture minister Purev Sergelen today, will strengthen the partnership between FAO and Mongolia on South-South and Triangular Cooperation -- a form of development partnership that boosts countries' agricultural capacity by linking their policy makers and producers with experts and technologies from around the world. This includes other emerging economies that have built special expertise in...

Last week, FAO and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) signed a Readiness Framework Agreement to enable developing countries to partner with FAO on activities enhancing their access to GCF. The agreement was signed during the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) in Marrakech (7–18 November 2016) by Ms Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General, Mr Javier Manzanares, GCF Executive Director a.i., and Mr Ousseynou Nakoulima, GCF Country Programming Director. The GCF supports countries in readiness and preparatory activities to enhance their ownership. Country readiness funding is a cross-cutting programme that aims to improve the effectiveness of...

FAO and Caritas Roma have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide assistance to people facing food insecurity in the Italian capital. Thanks to the agreement signed today by Daniel Gustafson, FAO’s Deputy Director General (Operations), and Monsignor Enrico Feroci, Director of the Rome-based branch of Caritas, the UN agency will donate excess food and other basic products coming from its headquarters,in the Italian capital to the charity for distribution around Rome.. Every year, about one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption is either wasted or lost - an amount that...

14 November 2016, Morogoro, Tanzania - A new project by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) is set to support Tanzania’s efforts to increase rise production and productivity in twofold by 2018 through boosting productivity in farming among smallholder farmers. With funding from the Government of Venezuela, the Partnership for Sustainable Rice Systems Development in Africa project is going to support efforts to improve domestic rice supply and strengthen the rice market in the country.  “This project will provide an opportunity to build on on-going initiatives and partnerships by assessing national rice development strategies,” said FAO Country Representative,...

New agreement aims to improve food security, boost rural development, and address climate change in the Global South 11 November 2016, Marrakesh - FAO is joining forces with the South Centre, an intergovernmental organization of developing countries, to help the countries of the Global South eliminate hunger and malnutrition, reduce poverty, address climate change and achieve sustainable rural development under the umbrella of South-South cooperation. A five-year Memorandum of Understanding was signed today by Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General for Natural Resources, and Vicente Paulo Yu, Deputy Executive Director of the South Centre on the sidelines of the 22nd Conference of...

Significant results were achieved by projects supported by the FAO Multipartner Programme Support Mechanism (FMM) in 2015, as outlined by the FMM 2015 Annual Report now available. The FMM is a funding mechanism for partners willing to contribute unearmarked funds or slightly earmarked funds. Created in 2010, the FMM is currently supported by the Kingdoms of Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden.  The FMM has been conceived as a tool to support FAO’s Strategic Framework.  “The FMM is unique as it gives FAO the freedom to allocate funds where the Organization believes they are most needed and effective to achieve FAO’s Strategic Objectives approved...

More than 100 lawmakers from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Spain highlighted the imperative need to act against the effects of climate change through legislation, at the opening of the VII Forum of the Parliamentary Front against Hunger. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, the Parliamentary Fronts against Hunger are key to enforcing the commitments of the Paris Agreements and the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22), especially those closely...