New academia partners to achieve the SDGs

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been very busy in the last few months developing new partnerships with the academia and research institutions. The FAO signed collaboration agreements with the Polytechnic University of Turin (POLITO), Italy; the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE), Hungary; the University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice (FFPW USB), Czechia; and the Shota Meskhia State Teaching University of Zugdidi (SMSTU), Georgia.

In July, the FAO signed the Exchange of Letters (EoL) with POLITO to join forces to further disseminate and use the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) sustainability indicators developed with the support of FAO, to assessing environmental, social and economic impacts of any bioenergy production at the country levels, with a view to informing decision making and facilitating the sustainable development of bioenergy. The cooperation with POLITO’s “Galileo Ferraris” Energy Department is expected to play a key role in improving the sustainability of global bioenergy systems and facilitating processes for communities to understand, assess and strengthen their resilience to climate change. 

Sustainable bioenergy production and use has great potential to support social development and poverty reduction. In this light, the collaboration with POLITO aims to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Under the Letter of Intent (LoI) signed with FFPW US (April 2021) and the EoL negotiated with MATE (September 2021), the parties will promote activities to raise awareness, as well as the exchange of professionals and the development of their capacities, in the areas of inland fisheries and aquaculture in Europe and Central Asia. Both FFPW US and MATE’s Research Center for Fisheries and Aquaculture (HAKI) will be engaging in the management, conservation and development of inland resources and ecosystems, and sustainable freshwater aquaculture. The collaborations are expected to benefit smallholders and contribute to the achievement of the SDGs.

Finally, the “Implementation Agreement” signed with SMSTU (July 2021) is directly linked to the project “Fostering economic empowerment of women farmers by supporting homemade dairy production in Georgia”. The Project, launched in partnership with the UN agency for gender equality & women's empowerment (UN Women), aims to establish Farmer Field Schools (FFS) in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region of Georgia to train women farmers on best practices in small-scale dairy production.

SMSTU has established a training farm in Senaki, Georgia, to develop the capacities and technical knowledge of future professionals on small-scale dairy production. The Implementation Agreement will allow FAO to use the University’s farm to train 15 to 20 local women dairy farmers to master best practices applied in the productionof dairy goods while the SMSTU teachers will access technical trainings to further consolidate the University academic offer in terms of dairy production. The Project created 14 Farmer Field Schools in Samegrelo Zemo Svaneti and aims at training 500 women dairy farmers.