The Strategic Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Unit (SPRM)

The Strategic Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Unit (SPRM) is designed to promote a more systematic use of partnerships in the Near East and North Africa Region (NENA), and to provide practical guidance to FAO units and partners to facilitate the selection, prioritization, development and management of new or renewed partnerships.

To meet the Zero Hunger Challenge, political commitment and major alliances with key stakeholders are crucial in our Region. Partnerships are at the heart of FAO’s mission to help build consensus for a world without hunger. The effectiveness and credibility of the Organization as a policy-making forum and unique multilingual Centre of excellence, knowledge and technical expertise depends to a considerable degree on its ability to work and develop strategic partnerships. Only through effective collaboration with governments, civil society, private sector, academia, research centers and cooperatives, and making use of each other’s knowledge and comparative advantages, can food insecurity be defeated.

Examples of successful and sustainable on-going resource-based partnerships in the NENA region are with the European Union, Canada, USAID, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, the World Bank, EBRD, Islamic Development Bank, IFAD, WFP, with ab envelope of USD 200 million.

The NENA region is also a key driver in accelerating access to Climate Finance, and transforming towards low-emission, climate-resilient food systems is key to improving the livelihoods of rural communities depending on natural resources for their well-being.

Bothe the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF) have been scaling up investments in high-impact projects that makes agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors more efficient, inclusive, sustainable and resilient to climate change.  Our Regional Office is aiming at preparing partnerships under the GEF and GCF portfolios of up to 100 million USD in the next biennium of 2024-2025.

Kayan Jaff  Senior Partnerships Officer FAO Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa