A high-level delegation comprising four ministers of the Government of Sudan travelled to Brazil for a ten-day study tour with the Centre of Excellence Against Hunger, the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 

FAO, within the overall FAO Zero Hunger Challenge launched in 2012, the five-year Sudan Plan of Action (PoA) (2015-2019), the National Agriculture Investment Plan and the Corporate South-South and Triangle Cooperation (SSC), supported the study tour. It was an opportunity to help put information and knowledge in reach to support the transition to sustainable agriculture and strengthen and share policy expertise to address food and nutrition security in Sudan.

Since 1996 FAO has been facilitating SSC by promoting platforms for knowledge networking, mobilizing upstream policy support, fostering partnerships, supporting exchanges of technical experience and how-how,  and fielding over 1800 experts and technicians to more than 50 countries from the global south. Brazil is one the key provider countries, having contributed more than USD 50 million to support several FAO’s SSC programmes, promoting joint initiatives of technical and scientific cooperation, agricultural research activities, capacity development and technology transfer.

 “We are very pleased to have embarked on this journey with the support of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil.  We take every opportunity to observe and learn how Brazil has been able to lift hundreds of thousands of its people out of hunger and extreme poverty,” said Agriculture and Irrigation Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid who is leading the delegation.  

Other members of the delegation included Mr Anwar Ahmed Mohamed Khalifa, Executive Director of the Office of the Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, Mr Habib Makhtoum, Chairman of the Agriculture Committee for the National Assembly, Mr Majkzoub Musa Majzoub, State Minister of Agriculture in Kassala, and Mr Mansour Fath Elrahman Mansour, Director of General Directorate for Investment of the Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, Rosanne Marchesich, Deputy FAO Representative, Adnan Khan, WFP Country Director and Maysaa AlGalghribawy, WFP Head of External Relations.

FAO facilitated several visits to: agro-industries and farms, some supported by the Brazilian Corporation of Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA): Research Institutes such as the Instituto Mato Grosso (IMA); line ministries; and a wrap up meeting with the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. “There are great opportunities to increase investment and research in agriculture by bolstering public-private collaboration to improve smallholder agriculture, which remains underdeveloped in Sudan. Public and private partnership and coordination are critical for effective and responsible investment promotion in the agribusiness sector. Effective engagement with the private sector can help the fight against hunger and malnutrition by enhancing agriculture, fishery, forestry, natural resource management, and the food value chain from farmer to consumer”, stated Rosanne Marchesich, Deputy FAO Representative.

FAO has supported the Government of Sudan for more than 35 years working towards achieving sustainable impacts in addressing the challenges and opportunities facing food, agriculture and rural development. They represent a combination of interlinked and cross-sectoral impacts, addressing the areas of crops, livestock, fisheries, food safety, forestry, natural resources, enabling environments, food security, gender, emergencies and investment. The Zero Hunger Challenge is one of the means by which FAO aims to meet one of its five Strategic Objectives – namely to “eradicate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.”