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14 November 2013, Rome  - La FAO y el Club de Exportadores e Inversores Españoles colaborarán en la creación de capacidades y la formación de productores y distribuidores locales para apoyar la comercialización de productos agropecuarios en mercados internacionales.El acuerdo firmado hoy en la sede de la FAO en Roma por Marcela Villarreal, directora de Asociaciones, Actividades de Promoción y Creación de Capacidad de la FAO, y Balbino Prieto, presidente del Club de Exportadores e Inversores, establece también el intercambio de conocimientos que permita mejorar el nivel de vida de la población rural en países en desarrollo.

Cape town, South Africa, 08 November 2013 (FAO) - The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) jointly with the World Rural Forum (WRF), the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the World Farmers Organization (WFO) organized an African Regional Dialogue in Cape Town from 6 to 7 November 2013 to enhance national and regional discussions on family farming and smallholder farming (including agriculture forestry, fisheries and livestock). In a world that has an estimated population of 7 billion, where almost 1 billion people are undernourished (of which 239 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa), the African continent is faced with...

Severe nutrition problems afflict more than half the world's population and food systems will need to undergo significant changes to improve people's diets and lives, speakers told country representatives and experts as they opened a meeting organized by FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO).The 13-15 November event is a preparatory technical meeting designed to lay the groundwork for the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), scheduled to take place in 2014, from 19 to 21 November. The aim is to boost coordination of international efforts to tackle the agricultural, economic, health, food system and other factors that...

Nairobi – FAO, WFP and UNICEF share the goal of strengthening resilience of the most vulnerable in Eastern and Central Africa. The three agencies confirmed their commitment to play a key role for mobilizing change through resilience building in the region. The agencies made the pledge during a two-day workshop in Nairobi, Kenya.  The joint statement is a new step in a process that started after the 2011 drought crisis in the Horn of Africa, when donors, governments and UN agencies pledged to work differently. Following the Heads of States Summit in September 2011, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) received...

Washington, DC/Rome - Global Environment Facility (GEF) CEO Naoko Ishii today approved a project coordinated by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to improve the health and sustainability of tuna fisheries worldwide by reducing illegal catch and supporting related marine ecosystems and species.The GEF, an international institution uniting 183 countries to address global environmental issues and support sustainable development, approved funding for the implementation phase of the multi-partner project coordinated by FAO which aims to improve management of tuna fisheries on the high seas and conserve biodiversity of related marine ecosystems and species. It will reduce illegal catches...

Dakar, Senegal - FAO Director-General met with representatives of the Senegalese private sector and emphasized the key role that they can play in reinforcing food security and in developing sustainable agriculture. Companies present discussed their activities ad issues encountered in the areas of  distribution of agricultural inputs, production and processing of local commodities including cereals, fruits. The representatives of the Senegalese Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, and the national Employer Federation shared their global vision of how the agricultural sector could be more efficient. They proposed to develop an integrated approach from a "modern production" to locally processed and purchased food products, including...

FAO and Plan International will collaborate in the promotion of food secure environments in poor households and communities, with a strong focus on vulnerable children and their families. The agreement signed today by Marcela Villarreal, Director of FAO’s Office for Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development (OPC), and Rosemary McCarney, President and CEO of Plan Canada, covers responses to critical needs as well as long-term initiatives to tackle systemic impediments to stable, sustainable and resilient food security environments. “FAO is proud of this partnership with Plan International. We come together at a time when we realize how similar our efforts are and...

Rome - A seminar titled “The efficiency and inclusiveness of Public Private Partnerships as a tool in the fight against hunger” was held at FAO headquarters today. The Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department (AG) and the Office of Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development (OPC) jointly held the seminar. The central theme discussed over the two-hour seminar concerned public private partnerships (PPP) as a tool in the fight against hunger. From this theme, two key questions emerged: how PPPs can be an efficient tool in eradicating hunger, and how PPPs be inclusive of local agribusiness and smallholder farmers.  Representatives from FAO, IFAD and the Standards...

“With their wealth of ancestral knowledge”, indigenous and tribal peoples make for “key partners in the fight against hunger, malnutrition, and food insecurity”, remarked FAO’s Sharon Brennen-Haylock, as the General Assembly’s Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Affairs (“3rd”) Committee opened discussions in New York on the rights of indigenous peoples. The pursuit of traditional hunting and pastoral lifestyles, noted FAO’s Liaison Director to the United Nations, helps “maintain high levels of biological diversity, including invaluable genetic resources for food and agriculture”. Such practices and know-how, she continued, “create an important pillar of the food security of present and future generations worldwide”. Of the...

Support to family farming through improved production and market access is essential in the fight against hunger. With this idea as a basis, FAO and Italian food chain Eataly signed a Memorandum of Understanding covering collaboration during the International Year of Family Farming in 2014 . The agreement signed by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and Eataly CEO Nicola Farinetti establishes various initiatives, such as resource mobilization in support of family farmers in Africa and Latin America. Thus, part of the profits from the sale of certain products in the Eataly establishments will go to FAO projects in developing countries. This...