Longstanding partnership forges ahead with strategic dialogue between France and FAO
FAO and France Partnership
Rome - A strategic dialogue between France and FAO will take place from the 5th to6th of February 2020. The high-level meeting will take place at FAO’s headquarters in Rome, and will focus on the collaboration between FAO and, for France: the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Agriculture and Food (MAA), as well as the French research institutions INRAE, CIRAD, AGREENIUM and IRD.
The two days of dialogue - one dedicated to the research institutes and the second to the Ministries - will address the pressing challenges to combat food insecurity. In particular, the discussions will revolve around issues related to climate change, sustainable management of natural resources, biodiversity, strengthening agricultural innovation systems and digitalization in agriculture, food systems, nutrition and gender.
Emerging priorities of the FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, such as the Hand in Hand initiative, will also be presented.
FAO and France Partnership
FAO and France have a longstanding collaboration to contribute to achieving food security and sustainable agricultural development. France continues to show increasing commitment to supporting global development through both financial contributions and the provision of technical specialists whose expertise contribute to FAO’s mandate and objectives.
Between 2012 and 2019, France was among FAO’s largest contributors with a total of USD 255 199 326 in both voluntary and assessed contributions.
Over the years, the different Framework Agreements between FAO and France have focused on a variety of themes whose evolution reflects the increasing complexity of global issues and how the partnership is evolving to respond to them effectively. The third framework agreement, signed in December 2017, outlines France’s priorities including food security and nutrition, responsible investments, food systems, rural youth employment, global health, resilience and climate change.
More recently, in 2019, France become the first non-African contributor to the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund (ASTF) with Euro 2 million. In the same year, the country also become a partner of the Flexible Multi-partner Mechanism (FMM) with an allocation of EUR 1 million. France, represented by the French Permanent Representation to FAO, and MAA, is a member of FAO’s technical committees including the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), Committee on Forestry (COFO), Committee on Agriculture (COAG), Committee on Commodity Problems (CCP), and the Committee on Fisheries (COFI). At the FAO Conference in 2019, France was elected to FAO’s Programme Committee as one of the two Member Countries representing the European Region in this Committee.
New updates to the FAO and France Partnership Report present French contributions to FAO projects made from 2016 to 2019. The report also provides more details about France’s support to the FMM and ASTF.
More information
FAO and France Partnership Report