Foto: Erick Obando/FAO

Santiago, Chile – March 31, 2022 - During a bilateral meeting at the FAO Regional Conference, in Quito, Ecuador, held on March 31, the head of the Brazilian delegation for the event, Ambassador Ruy Pereira, Director of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ABC/MRE) delivered a commemorative publication for two 14 years of the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation Program to the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Qu Dongyu. The document “Brazil and FAO, the path to cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean: A historical alliance for promoting sustainable development and food security in the region” was prepared especially for the FAO Regional Conference with the aim of celebrating this partnership. 

The Ambassador Ruy Pereira, Director of the ABC/MRE, made the symbolic delivery of the publication on the 14 years of the Brazil-FAO partnership. “This document registers the main achievements of the partnership in this long period in Latin America and the Caribbean, in favor of the development of capacities of the other developing partner countries”, highlighted the Brazilian diplomat. 

Available in three languages ​​(Portuguese, Spanish and English), the publication describes the trajectory of the alliance between the government of Brazil and FAO in Latin America and the Caribbean, in the framwork of the trilateral South-South cooperation, in the areas of school feedind, public procurement, family farming, strengthening of the cotton sector, eradication of hunger and rural poverty, government responsibility for land ownership, food and nutrition security, public agri-environmental policies and aquaculture. 

Currently, five projects are being executed on the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation: Hungry-Free Latin America and Caribbean Initiative 2025; +Cotton; Consolidation of School Feeding Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean; Support for the Strengthening of Responsible Governance for Land Ownership and Strengthening Family Farming and Agrarian Reform Settlers in the Region: Pathways to Sustainable Development. 

Experiences and good practices that have contributed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are shared from Brazil with partner countries through an innovative model of cooperation. And, in search of a sustainable world in the context of the UN 2030 Agenda, FAO started the execution of its new strategic framework for the period 2022-2031, based on the transformation of agrifood systems to make them more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable. This aims to achieve better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind. These axes are also already part of the cooperation initiatives between Brazil and FAO under the scope of the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation Program. 

Learn more about the Brazil-FAO Cooperation: 

Better production

The project Hungry-Free Latin America and Caribbean Initiative 2025, ongoing, develops several initiatives to promote better living conditions for thousands of families, including recent action that focuses on supporting the countries of the Central American Dry Corridor: El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. 

The project Sowing Capacities, carried out between 2019 and 2021, contributed to important advances in family and community-based agriculture in Colombia, involving partners from Brazil and Colombia. The +Cotton project, executed since 2013, is implemented in a shared and innovative way in 5 countries in the region, and has been repositioning the cotton chain in the governmental agenda of Latin American countries. It supports the formulation of national plans for cotton and the improvement of competitiveness strategies. 

The Brazilian experience in programs and public policies to strengthen family farming in the region has been a reference for the execution of a series of initiatives in LAC countries. One of the examples of shared construction environments is the projects Strengthening dialogue between FAO, governments and civil society, carried out between 2008 and 2018, and the Strengthening Family Farming and Agrarian Reform Settlers in the Region: Pathways to Sustainable Development, currently in progress. 

Initiatives such as the strengthening of the Mercosur Family Agriculture Specialized Meeting (REAF Mercosur), the establishment of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty and the development of a regional agenda on gender, among others topics, are examples of the support of Brazil-FAO Cooperation on family farming. 

Better nutrition

Brazil's commitment to support other countries in strengthening their school feeding policies, through the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation Program, reflects the relevance that this public policy has in building a sustainable world that respects the right to adequate and healthy food. Through the projects Strengthening School Feeding Programs, carried out between 2009 and 2018, and Consolidation of School Feeding Programs in LAC, currently underway, six countries were supported in the formulation and approval of their legal frameworks on this topic: Bolivia, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Paraguay.

Food and Nutritional Security actions supported the strengthening of institutions responsible for these policies, thus further improving the relation between government and civil society. The project Support for the Strengthening of Responsible Governance for Land Ownership, carried out from 2014 to 2018, contributed to raising awareness among national actors on food insecurity paradigms and having gender focus in these policies and instruments, among others. 

Better environment

The formulation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Agro-Environmental Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean is the result of the project Strengthening Agro-Environmental Policies, carried out between 2012 and 2018, based on a broad process of dialogues and diagnoses in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Paraguay. The Aquaculture Network of the Americas (RAA) cooperated in the exchange of knowledge among countries and continues to bear fruit in the spaces of information exchange, mainly between producers. This was possible thanks to the support of the project Activation of Services and Consolidation Aquaculture Network of the Americas, carried out from 2011 to 2015, within the scope of the cooperation between Brazil and FAO in the region. 

The Support for the Strengthening of Responsible Governance for Land Ownership, currently under way, has been collaborating to identify technological measures and solutions for land management with the potential for replication in the countries of the region. It also promotes dialogues for the development of a joint agenda on technological innovation and institutional strengthening. 

Brazilian partnership

Under the coordination of ABC/MRE, currently at least 14 Brazilian institutions participate in this technical cooperation, driven by the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation Program. Among them are the National Fund for Educational Development (FNDE/MEC), the Secretariat of Family Agriculture and Cooperatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) and the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA). They also support the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), the Paraíba Research, Rural Extension and Land Regularization Company (Empaer-PB), the Brazilian Association of Cotton Producers (Abrapa) and the Brazilian Cotton Institute (IBA). These partner institutions support the execution of ongoing projects, promoting the exchange of knowledge and innovations.