FAO Director General Graziano da Silva concludes a bilateral meeting with the Tongan delegation at SIDS 2014 in Samoa

Food security, small-scale fisheries and nutrition were the main topics of talks

FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva has reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to address food and nutritional insecurity and sustainable livelihood programs in the Small Islands Developing States, in a series of high-level bilateral meetings with the islands’ leaders in the margins of the SIDS Conference, held in Apia, Samoa.

The Director-General has also stressed high level of food imports by SIDS and the trend of families to favour easy to prepare processed meals rather than traditional dishes. In this context, Graziano da Silva renewed the invitation to the Ministers of Agriculture to take part at the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), to be held in Rome next November.

Another recurrent theme in the meetings was the organization’s technical expertise in small-scale fisheries, broadening opportunities for fishermen and local food production, including feasibility study in seaweed farming and finding the right balance with industrial fisheries. FAO’s Blue Growth Initiative, assists SIDS to sustainably use their aquatic resources, was also remembered.

SIDS leaders welcomed FAO’s initiatives as they received a brochure with a summary of some activities undertaken by the organization in each one of its 52 states.

“All of those activities are not isolated efforts, but are part of the strategic framework that guides FAO action defined by our Members and that focuses on food security, sustainability, reducing rural poverty, improving markets and building resilience”, said Graziano da Silva.

DG FAO has met the Presidents of Micronesia and Seychelles, the Prime Ministers of Saint Kitts and Nevis and Barbados, the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Mauritius; the Ministers of Agriculture of Samoa and Tonga; the Ministers of Environment of Dominica, Nauru and Palau and representatives from Papua New Guinea and Marshall Islands, as well as the Secretary-General of CARICOM and the Director-General of the Organization of the East Caribbean States (OECS).