FAO kick-starts new global South-South and Triangular Cooperation project to support the One Country One Priority Product Initiative

23/10/2024 Rome – Key stakeholders, including government officials, project task force members, OCOP Focal Points and FAO staff from seven countries, covering four regions convened virtually to kick-start a new project, aimed at establishing South-South and Triangular Cooperation Networks for Special Agriculture Products (SAPs) to promote knowledge sharing, technology transfer for scaling-up the One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) initiative. 

The inception workshop, held on 23 October 2024, was central to define project objectives, expected outputs and major activities, as well as reviewing the detailed work plan and budget for the project implementation. 

The OCOP initiative, a flagship program of FAO, is designed to support Members in transitioning to more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems through strengthened value chains of Special Agricultural Products (SAPs). 

By promoting sustainable production, storage, processing, and marketing of selected SAPs, OCOP contributes to the development of smallholders and family farms, aligning with FAO's Strategic Framework 2022-31 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Funded by the FAO Flexible Voluntary Contribution (FVC), the global project was launched in March  2024, and will run up to December 2025, with a total budget of USD 500,000.  

Algeria will benefit from Türkiye technical support on figs. Cambodia and the Philippines will receive support from China and Indonesia on mango; whilst Lesotho will receive technical assistance from China and Peru on potato production. 

Mr. Zhang Yahui, FAO-China SSC Programme Senior Coordinator, speaking on behalf of Mr. Anping Ye, Director of the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division (PST) emphasized that South-South and Triangular Cooperation is an innovative cooperation model that encourages developing countries to pool and mobilize resources and expertise to implement mutually beneficial projects. He noted that over the past 40 years, FAO has implemented an extensive portfolio of over 140 SSTC initiatives, including its flagship Programmes, the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Programme. In December 2023, the FAO-China SSC Programme launched a USD 5 million project to support a global OCOP project under the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Programme, supporting capacity development and demonstration activities in 15 countries. He encouraged all the stakeholders to make concerted efforts to enhance the knowledge sharing and technology transfer through this new and unique SSTC project to scale-up the OCOP initiative.

Mr Yurdi Yasmi, OCOP Deputy-Executive Secretary at FAO, underscored the pivotal role of South-South and Triangular Cooperation in facilitating partnerships between different countries and in helping the OCOP countries accelerate technological transfer and innovation of their Special Agricultural Products. He emphasized the catalytic nature of the project and encouraged the countries to learn together and to explore opportunities to scale-up their OCOP projects.  

Representatives from the seven countries participated in an interactive dialogue on their OCOP initiatives, priority areas for the South-South exchanges, and plans for implementation at national level. Cambodia highlighted the need to strengthen capacities of agricultural cooperatives (mango producers) and capacity building on phytosanitary issues to expand mango exports, especially to China. Philippines identified cecid fly management and strengthening capacities of farmers to adopt Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) as areas of focus; whilst Lesotho, indicated the need of planting materials for potato (early maturing and high-yielding seed potato).

The People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Peru and Türkiye are supporting the project as technical partners. 

Mr Hafiz Muminjanov, Global Coordinator of OCOP, presented the updates on the global implementation of the OCOP initiative. He shared that 87 OCOP Members across all five FAO regions have committed to promoting 54 SAPs, and approximately 20 million have been mobilized to support 60 countries.  

Ms Athifa Ali, Project Officer at PST presented the project rationale, background, outputs and activities and the way forward for project implementation. She emphasized the importance of leveraging the existing OCOP focal point networks and establishing synergies and complementarities with other ongoing OCOP initiatives in the four project countries. 

In his closing remarks, Mr. Yurdi Yasmi, noted the strong interest and motivation from all countries and encouraged them and FAO to leverage the positive momentum to create measurable impact. 

SSTC has been considered as an important and effective modality to support developing countries in their effort to transform the agrifood systems transformation. This newly launched SSTC project funded through the FVC will offer a unique opportunity for cross-country and cross-SAP knowledge learning and experience sharing among the participating countries, to support the FAO global OCOP Initiative and the OCOP development in the beneficiary countries.