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Ensuring sustainable development
The Initiative provides integrated analyses that identify key interactions, synergies, and trade-offs among actions to accelerate economic growth, ensure social inclusion, and promote sustainable use of biodiversity and natural resources.

Focus on poverty and hunger
Hand-in-Hand targets the poorest of the poor in the most vulnerable, low‐income, low‐capacity countries to unlock agriculture’s full development potential.
Robust partnership building
We facilitate governments’ efforts to engage with donors and development partners to rally support and implement national agricultural strategies and investment plans.

 

A territorial approach
Hand-in-Hand uses geospatial, biophysical, and socio-economic data, as well as advanced analytics to identify territories where agricultural transformation and sustainable management of forest and fisheries have the greatest potential for alleviating poverty and hunger.


The Investment Forum 2022
Twenty countries presented impact investment opportunities to multilateral banks and agribusinesses.

The Hand-in-Hand (HIH) Initiative supports the implementation of nationally led, ambitious programmes to accelerate agrifood systems transformations by eradicating poverty (SDG1), ending hunger and malnutrition (SDG2), and reducing inequalities (SDG10). It uses advanced geospatial modeling and analytics, as well as a robust partnership-building approach to accelerate the market-based transformation of agrifood systems — to raise incomes, improve the nutritional status and well-being of poor and vulnerable populations, and strengthen resilience to climate change.

 

The Initiative prioritizes countries and territories where poverty and hunger are highest, national capacities are limited, or operational difficulties are greatest due to natural or man-made crises. Areas of intervention have included developing value chains for priority commodities, building agro-industries and efficient water management systems, introducing digital services and precision agriculture, reducing food losses and waste, and addressing climate challenges and weather risks.

 

The Hand-in-Hand Initiative, launched in 2019, is a flagship of FAO and one of its core priority programme areas.

Core Concepts

What is Hand-in-Hand? An evidence-based, country-owned and led initiative to accelerate agricultural transformation, with the goal of eradicating poverty, ending hunger and malnutrition, and reducing inequalities.

Active Countries

The Initiative supports 54 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East as of October 2022.

Geospatial Platform

With access to more than 2 million data and information layers, the platform serves as the evidence base for identifying territories where agricultural transformation have the greatest potential for alleviating poverty and hunger.

Data Lab

The Data Lab bolsters evidence and information generation, using the most advanced tools for big data management, including artificial intelligence.