FAO and Plan International join forces to support food security for vulnerable children

FAO and Plan International will collaborate in the promotion of food secure environments in poor households and communities, with a strong focus on vulnerable children and their families.

The agreement signed today by Marcela Villarreal, Director of FAO’s Office for Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development (OPC), and Rosemary McCarney, President and CEO of Plan Canada, covers responses to critical needs as well as long-term initiatives to tackle systemic impediments to stable, sustainable and resilient food security environments.

“FAO is proud of this partnership with Plan International. We come together at a time when we realize how similar our efforts are and we are confident that this step will not only add to them but multiply them,” said Villareal. 

“We have done good work together in a number of countries, from Sudan to Peru to Paraguay and now it is time to take our collaboration further,” she added referring to past successful collaboration with Plan Regional Offices in Africa and Latin America.

The new partnership involves coordination at country level for timely response to emergencies; combating malnutrition mainly in women and children through agriculture-based approaches and contributing to global initiatives to address malnutrition.

“We feel very privileged for this agreement as it takes our previous ad-hoc arrangements further and  provides with the framework for joint initiatives to achieve common goals,” said McCarney.

FAO and Plan International will also explore potential opportunities for joint research on food security and nutrition and initiatives to increase efficiency of agricultural and livestock production systems for smallholder farmers through cooperatives, provision of quality inputs and capacity building. The agreement involves youth in agricultural value chains.

Founded in 1937, Plan International programmes seek to improve food security and nutrition through activities such as school feeding; responding to emergencies; innovating to improve crop yields; giving people  – particularly women and youth – access to training, tools, livestock and seeds, and offering loans to start small agri-businesses.

Plan’s initiatives are community-based, implemented in partnership with approximately 66 000 volunteers and over 23 000 organizations – including national and local government institutions, international, national and local NGOs, community-based organizations and United Nations agencies.