Mr. Tarek bin Moussa al-Zadjali, AOAD Director General and Mr. Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the NENA

19 February 2015, Cairo – Amidst the mounting challenges in the region of food insecurity, displacement of populations, protracted crises, water scarcity and climate change, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD) of the League of Arab States held today at FAO regional office in Cairo their first coordination meeting.

The meeting was chaired by Mr. Tarek bin Moussa al-Zadjali, AOAD Director General and Mr. Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the NENA. Twelve experts in agriculture and water from AOAD and Seventeen from FAO RNE attended the meeting.

 The meeting discussed various possible collaborations to achieving sustainable development goals in agriculture, especially with reference to; water resources, crop productivity and production, animal and fish resources as well as plant and animal transboundary issues and diseases

“Our two organizations are working in the same region and country members of the AOAD are FAO’s members too. This is an opportunity that we should seize to maximize the use of available resources. An integrated cooperation is key to avoiding any competition to reach our national and Millennium goals”, said Tarek bin Moussa al-Zadjali, AOAD Director General.

“Fast-paced population growth, climate change, limited water resources make the achievement of food security one of the most important challenges in the Near east and North Africa” said Mr. Abdessalam Ould Ahmed.

"cooperating with strategic partners and intensifying agricultural investments is essential for the attainment of our common development goals”, he added.

Both Organisations reviewed ways and mechanisms to support capacity building programmes, technical and policy experience sharing, and joined field interventions to further improve agriculture productivity and production to improve farmers’ livelihoods and sustain food security in the region.