Strengthening South-South and Triangular Cooperation in Cabo Verde

03/07/2023 Rome - On the sidelines of the 43rd Session of FAO’s Conference, Anping Ye, Director of the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division (PST) in FAO met with H.E. Gilberto Silva, Minister for Agriculture and Environment of Cabo Verde, to discuss the upcoming launch of the FAO-China South-South Cooperation (SSC) project in support of Agricultural Production Systems to Enhance Food Security and Nutrition in the Republic of Cabo Verde, and future developments.

Anping Ye and his delegation from FAO headquarters, thanked H.E. Gilberto Silva for Cabo Verde’s support to SSTC and presented the main highlights of FAO’s work in SSTC. 

Despite significant setbacks in 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent travel restrictions, which impeded the project’s implementation, progress has been made since then and the Chinese experts are ready to be dispatched to Cabo Verde to kick off the project, he added. 

The PST delegation also reiterated the importance of further strengthening joint SSTC collaboration with Cabo Verde. 

The project launch, which is foreseen in the coming months, will also see the participation of H.E., who expressed his eagerness to attend the event and provide remarks.

His Excellency, Gilberto Silva, expressed his appreciation of FAO’s support to SSTC. He also noted the importance of SSTC and its fundamental role within this project.

Two key project areas of work were reiterated by H.E, namely the support provided by the project concerning pest control and algae. H.E emphasized how algae could generate socio-economic benefits for Cabo Verde’s households and how its cultivation could help empower women. 

The two agreed on strengthening collaboration in these two key areas of work. H.E. expressed Cabo Verde’s availability to work closely with FAO’s SSTC division and to launch the project, as soon as possible, as time is of the essence.

FAO-China South-South Cooperation Programme

Since 1996, China has contributed over 130 million US Dollars to the FAO-China South-South cooperation Programme—the Organization’s flagship Programme on South-South cooperation.

More than 1000 Chinese experts have been dispatched to countries in the Global South to help transfer Chinese agricultural technologies and solutions to millions of farmers in developing countries.

The FAO-China SSC Project in Cabo Verde aims at strengthening capacity development with the objective of supporting production systems to enhance food and nutrition security in the country. Priority areas include agricultural production, pest control, livestock and seaweed aquaculture.