Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Universidade Federal do Parana (UFPR) formalized their cooperation through the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding on February 26, 2021. The partnership will allow both parties to develop activities in the fields of food nutrition, climate change, land and water conservation, environmental law and policy, in recognition of their areas of expertise and with the aim of consolidating their common objectives.

Founded in 1912, UFPR is a comprehensive public university that aims to promote the development of Brazilian society. Based in Curitiba with campuses in five other cities in the State of Parana, the university offers programmes ranging from undergraduate to Ph.D. levels through 14 academic units for over 55.000 students.

“The partnership with UFPR is a strategic collaboration that will contribute to enhancing the comparison of dietary data worldwide, and promote the development of capacities and policies targeting the sustainable management of natural resources,” said Eduardo Mansur, FAO’s Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment.

Through the signature of the cooperation agreement, the parties agreed to develop activities which focus on the harmonization of Brazilian national dietary data, development of institutional capacities on food diversity and security, development and implementation of food consumption surveys in Latin American and Caribbean countries, and the exchange and enhancement of knowledge on the sustainable management of water and land resources. At the UFPR, the Department of Nutrition, represented by the Postgraduate Program in Food and Nutrition, will be carrying out the nutrition-related activities while the Department of Rural Economy and Extension will be working with the activities related to water and land resources.

The Director of the UFPR International Office, André Duarte, stressed that “the strengthening of international academic collaboration bonds that have already proved to be effective and reciprocal is part of our strategy in order to increase the internationalization of our Graduate Programs. This is even more the case when it comes to collaborations that clearly contribute to the development of top-quality research in fields which are crucial for the improvement of life quality standards in the world.”

The partnership is expected to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a particular focus on SDG1 - No Poverty, SDG2 - Zero Hunger, SDG5 - Gender equality, SDG6 - Clean Water and Sanitation and SDG15 - Life on Land.