Building a better, more sustainable future

Rome - FAO currently has more than seventy partnerships with academia and research institutions worldwide, which help the Organization to provide the next generation with the tools and knowledge needed to create a more sustainable future. FAO recently renewed partnerships with five key academic and research institutions in Europe, Latin America, the Near East and the Asia-Pacific region, which will focus on capacity development, knowledge exchange and technical support in the areas of sustainable natural resource management, landscape restoration and agricultural innovation.

Access to knowledge and education is the priority in FAO’s partnership with the Unión de Universidades de América Latina y el Caribe (UDUAL), a network of more than 200 universities that spans 22 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. UDUAL and FAO have jointly developed a Master’s Degree in Food Security, which draws on FAO’s e-learning products. Going forward, the partnership will ensure knowledge and education are accessible for thousands of professionals working in food security and nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean, and will enhance curricula to include themes of nutrition, food systems and food safety.

Also in South America, FAO will continue to work with the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre (CATIE) to improve food security through strengthening national and regional capacities in the areas of sustainable management of tropical lands and forests, agroforestry, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. The next stage of the partnership foresees the development of joint training courses on sustainable forest management practices, joint research on forest governance and policy, and awareness-raising on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Joint activities are also foreseen under the Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism, with a particular focus on landscape restoration and sustainable landscapes in the Dry Corridor of Central America and Caribbean.

Forests are also at the heart of FAO’s continuing collaboration with the Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation (APFnet), a regional organisation based in Beijing, China. The partnership will focus on developing capacities and strategic planning for sustainable forest management in the Asia-Pacific region, through training, consultations and joint events at the regional level.

A continuing partnership with the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) aims to raise agricultural productivity in marginal agricultural areas, increase water security and alleviate rural poverty in the Near East region and recently in the Sahel Region, specifically in Cabo Verde. Together, FAO and ICBA will contribute to policy, scientific and technical support provided to countries through the Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG), where ICBA leads the working group on Saline Agriculture. This collaboration will assist policy makers, agriculture extension officers, and small-holder farmers in identifying and scaling up best practices in agriculture and adopting sustainable management practices, and will also implement joint capacity development activities on climate change adaptation and mitigation. Going forward, FAO and ICBA also aim to strengthen collaboration under the framework of Global Action for Fall Armyworm Control, and support initiatives on research and innovation to achieve food security and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

FAO’s continued partnership with AGRINATURA, a consortium of European universities and research organisations, aims to improve agricultural innovation systems to make them more efficient and sustainable, both in Europe and in developing countries. The partnership will continue to strengthen capacities for inclusive and impactful agricultural innovation, support National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems, and facilitate smallholder farmers’ access to knowledge and best practices. Planned activities will also support implementation of the Action Plan of the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) and facilitate policy processes for shaping the agricultural research agenda to include gender-sensitive, small-holder oriented research priorities.