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A large proportion of government investment in FAO contributes to advancing SARD. In addition, there are a number of governments that have supported specific SARD projects that have been initiated since the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the World Food Summit: fyl.
For example, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United States have committed resources to SARD projects that are achieving field-to-policy impact.
Norway
The Government of Norway has provided support to the SARD Initiative to assist the government of Kenya to work with government and other stakeholders at national, regional and global levels. This support has helped to improve communication on SARD, in keeping with the FAO Committee on Agriculture’s 19th Session recommendations, through refinement and revision of the SARD and SARD Initiative websites. Norway’s contribution has strengthened SARD coordination, and enabled the participation of indigenous people, youth and other disadvantaged groups in a good practices workshop held in Rome in October 2005 in collaboration with the FAO- and IFAD-sponsored 8th symposium of the International Farming Systems Association: the Global Learning Opportunity. Other SARD Initiative activities being undertaken with the assistance of the Government of Norway include national implementation in Kenya, Bolivia and India by facilitating governmental and civil society collaboration to identify, assess, replicate and upscale SARD good practices, including through community exchanges, policy maker exposure to community good practice and assessment methodologies and other tools; further development of the SARD Initiative website; support to activities related to rural agricultural workers, good practices; and the strengthening of SARD policy and development of a SARD toolkit for project designers and managers with the Government of Italy.
Second tranche of Norwegian funds allocated for SARD Initiative activities in 1st quarter of 2006
The Government of Norway has approved a new support package to enable FAO to strengthen its work programme on food security. Included are several components that include activities in support of the SARD Initiative, e.g., access to land, sustainable culture-based fisheries, incorporating food safety concerns in good agricultural practices and other actions to empower rural communities to achieve SARD.
Canada
The Government of Canada is supporting the development and establishment of a Resource Facility, a key component in the communications strategy of the SARD Initiative. The Resource Facility will be an internet-based inventory of good practices and other SARD-related materials. This material will be disseminated online, but an important element of the Resource Facility will be to ensure that this information reaches disadvantaged groups who do not have access to internet resources. A Canadian-sponsored Resource Facility Manager will coordinate these activities.
Italy
The Government of Italy has provided support to increase the environmental, economic and social sustainability of ongoing FAO/Italy development projects through the Sustainable Development Facility. With the Government of Norway, it has also supported the development of a resource guide containing methodological tools to support SARD project planning, implementation and evaluation. Italy’s contribution has helped to generate and disseminate lessons from projects, identify innovative approaches and good practices, and bring about improvements in the achievement of sustainable agriculture and rural development outcomes. SARD communication to raise awareness and increase participation, consultation and horizontal information sharing among stakeholders globally and at project level has also been improved as a result of this support.
Other interested governments
A number of other governments have shown interest in the SARD Initiative, including:
- Germany
- Netherlands
- South Africa
- Sweden
- Switzerland
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