News

FAO senior officials met today with a high level clerical delegation working in the Central African Republic to talk about FAO’s work in the country and how agriculture can play a role in building peace in the country.    Deputy Director-General for Operations Daniel Gustafson and Emergency and Rehabilitation Division Director Dominique Burgeon, who was recently on a field visit to the Central African Republic, held talks with the Catholic Archbishop of Bangui, Dieudonné Nzapalainga, the chief Imam of Bangui, Kobine Layama Omar, and the leader of the Federation of Protestant Churches of the Central African Republic, Nicolas Guerekoyame Gbangou, invited...

A meeting of more than 50 representatives of international, regional and national Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) based in Africa opened in Tunis today to discuss priority issues related to the development of agriculture and rural areas in Africa. Participants at the two-day consultation at Carthage Thalasso Hotel, hosted by l’Union Maghrébine et Nord Africaine des Agriculteurs (UMNAGRI), include farmers, artisanal fisherfolk, herders/pastoralists, landless, urban poor, workers in the food sector, women, youth, indigenous people, forest dwellers and other various constituencies. “It has become a tradition now in FAO, to organize consultative meetings with Non-State Actors (NSA) as an integral part of the...

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from Asia and the Pacific opened a two-day Consultation today to discuss their joint concerns about the future of small farmers, landless farmers, farm workers and other concerned stakeholders.  This parallel Consultation is organized just prior to FAO’s Thirty-Second Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC), also in Ulaanbaatar, 10-14 March. Forty participants representing different CSOs and their organizations from the region and Mongolia are participating in the Consultation and their conclusions will be shared with delegates through formal interventions during the APRC. In his welcome remarks as the host organization’s president, Bayartsaikhan Nadmid, of the...

  7 March 2014, Rome- Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and current head of the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice, welcomed “FAO’s approach in promoting new and stronger partnerships to combat global challenges of hunger, food insecurity and climate change” at a meeting with FAO Director-General today. Robinson was the keynote speaker at the International Women’s Day event held at FAO headquarters in Rome. She underlined that problems brought on by gender inequalities and lack of access to resources in agriculture were compounded by the unpredictable consequences of climate change. Graziano da Silva informed Robinson that FAO is...

FAO and the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) have joined forces towards the establishment of a Hunger Free Community of Portuguese Language Countries. FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and the Executive Secretary of the CPLP, Murade Isaac Miguigy Murargy, signed a Technical Cooperation Programme, uniting FAO and the CPLP today. With a total allocated contribution of $500,000 USD, the programme will support the CPLP and its governments, parliaments and non-governmental partners in implementing a Regional Strategy for Food and Nutrition Security approved in 2012. “The partnership between the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) and FAO represents a milestone for...