Photo: ©FAO

 Ankara, Türkiye – From 9 to 11 January 2023, Nancy Aburto, Deputy Director of the FAO Food and Nutrition Division (ESN), paid a visit to the FAO-Türkiye Country Office and the FAO Sub-regional Office for Central Asia (SEC) in Ankara.

The three-day mission started with a bilateral meeting with Viorel Gutu, FAO-Türkiye Representative and Sub-regional Office Coordinator. Afterwards, the SEC Multi-Disciplinary Team met with Aburto to discuss nutrition challenges and priorities in the SEC sub-region and to evaluate potential entry points for mainstreaming nutrition.

The programme continued with a meeting with the FAO-Türkiye Country Office team during which Ayşegül Selışık, FAO-Türkiye Assistant Representative, explained the overall country priorities and shed light on FAO-Türkiye’s programme and project portfolio. These include the FAO-Türkiye Partnership Programmes (FTPP), the Syria Refugee Resilience Plan (SRRP), Global Environment Facility (GEF) projects, EU projects and Technical Cooperation Projects (TCP). Selışık also presented FAO-Türkiye’s collaborations and partnerships. The meeting ended with a briefing given by Şeniz Ilgaz, FAO National Consultant on Food Literacy, detailing the outputs of a TCP on food literacy in Türkiye.

The mission also included visits to official institutions including the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MoAF), where Aburto met with Durali Koçak, Director General of Food Control. During the meeting the Deputy Director underlined the importance of the 40-year-old partnership between FAO and Türkiye, including the outcomes of the FAO-Türkiye Partnership Programme (FTPP). Indeed, the FTPP experience has provided numerous good practices, especially related to knowledge and experience sharing, that can be translated to other development cooperation context, many of which are reflected in FAO’s nutrition agenda. She also briefed the MoAF representatives about FAO’s Global Nutrition Strategy, which was endorsed in 2021, including FAO’s roles and mandate on nutrition, which encompasses strengthening data and evidence on diet and nutrition, supporting policy-making in member countries, facilitating knowledge and experience sharing, capacity strengthening and supporting commitments to achieve healthy diets. FAO’s mission on nutrition is to achieve healthy diets for all – and nutrition education at schools, food loss and waste reduction and food-based dietary guidelines are some of the concrete ways in which nutrition goals can be achieved.

Following a briefing on MoAF’s nutrition-related work and achievements under the FTPP, Director General Koçak expressed the Ministry’s appreciation for FAO’s longstanding support to Türkiye in terms of technical assistance, data provision, and knowledge and expertise on food, agriculture and nutrition. Koçak also emphasized that collaboration through the FTPP has enabled MoAF to provide support to other countries in the Central Asia sub-region.

The first day of the mission ended with a visit to a women-led cooperative entitled “S.S. Ankara Sağlıklı Gıda Kadın Girişimi Üretim ve İşletme Kooperatifi”, which has received supported from FAO-Türkiye and the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality through a Japanese government-funded project. Deputy Director Aburto visited a patisserie – Ankara Pastası – which has been set-up and is run by the cooperative.

The second day of the mission began with consultations on country food systems and nutrition focal points, with participants discussing key focuses, challenges and opportunities for nutrition-related activities at the country level.

During this meeting, Aburto shared FAO’s perspective regarding possible areas where ESN can provide further support to countries in line with the FAO Global Nutrition Strategy. The last meeting of the mission was held with the Federation of Turkish Food and Beverage Industry Associations (TGDF). Referring to the existing Memorandum of Understanding between FAO and TDGF, Aburto and Burhan Sakkaoglu, General Secretary of the Packaged Milk and Dairy Products Manufacturers Association, agreed on important future collaboration topics: innovation and communication, monitoring and data, capacity building for healthy food production and the affordability of a healthy diet.

Deputy Director Aburto’s mission continues with a visit to Kyrgyzstan.