Healthy diets for a growing, increasingly urban population in the presence of water scarcity and advancing climate change necessitate urgent changes and transformations in the agrifood systems of the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region.

Healthy diets for a growing, increasingly urban population in the presence of water scarcity and advancing climate change necessitate urgent changes and transformations in the agrifood systems of the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region.

In this light, the thirty-sixth session of the FAO Regional Conference for the Near East (NERC 36) is held this year under the theme "Restart and Recover: Better, greener and more resilient Agrifood Systems to achieve the sustainable development goals”.

NERC 36 will be hosted by the Republic of Iraq. The Conference will be held in two segments. The Senior Officers Meeting will be held from 10 to 13 January 2022 in virtual modality, while the Ministerial Session will take place in hybrid modality on 7 and 8 February 2022.

During the conference, ministers of agriculture, partner organizations, sister agencies, and senior officials of member countries will meet to elaborate on regional challenges and priorities related to this topic in the Near East and North Africa region. This will ensure the effectiveness of FAO’s impact in the region and will help in defining its work priorities for the next biennium.

These priorities will be determined through engaging roundtable and panel discussions with all member countries to identify best practices to transform food systems and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.