@fao rne Abdessalam Ould Ahmed and Mahmud Khalifa El-Tellisi during the third meeting of the programme's High-Level Steering Committee

Cairo, July 24, 2016//FAO Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa Abdessalam Ould Ahmed discussed the latest developments of the joint technical cooperation programme between Libya and FAO with Mr. Mahmud Khalifa El-Tellisi, the permanent representative of Libya to the FAO and other Rome-based UN agencies, during the third meeting of the programme's High-Level Steering Committee held at FAO regional office in Cairo. The meeting was attended by Mr. Nabil Gangi, FAO deputy regional representative for the Near East and North Africa, and Mr. Youssef Bin Gharsa, programme national coordinator. The meeting was also attended by Mr. Ayman Omar, programme officer at the FAO NENA Regional Office; Mr. Abdalla Zaied, FAO programme adviser; and Mr. Mohammed al-Ansi, programme operations officer.

The officials discussed the latest developments of the joint technical cooperation programme between FAO and Libya and the progress made in other FAO projects in Libya.

Mr. Ould Ahmed pointed out that FAO seeks to ensure that all technical needs and assistance necessary for the implementation of the joint programme, as well as budgets to support  some emergency projects, are in place. He added that at the request of Libya’s National Commission for Agriculture, Animal and Marine Wealth, FAO has allocated USD 403,000 to enhance the capacity of the livestock sector to fight and limit the spread of avian influenza.

In addition, FAO is currently preparing a report on the spread and impact of the Red Palm Weevil in Libya’s Eastern Region, in order to draft a project document in cooperation  between FAO experts and a local specialist in the field with as estimated budget of USD 350.000.

One of the most important projects discussed at the meeting was the project aiming to develop the capabilities of the Libyan Ministry of Agriculture, as both sides agreed on finalising the procedures to provide USD 3.5 million in funding for the project’s preliminary phase from the UTF programme budget.

FAO has also responded to a request by the National Commission for Agriculture, Animal and Marine Wealth for assistance in combatting olive tree bacterial diseases, including Libya in the regional action plans to prevent the spread of these diseases through building the technical capacity of national experts and farmers, training them on early disease detection, diagnosis, monitoring, and phytosanitary measures.

Moreover, and in order to facilitate identifying Libyan national experts to participate in implementing projects in Libya, FAO has established an electronic system to build a database of Libyan experts; this system includes: A specialised segment for national experts and their personal and technical information, scientific organisations, publications and technical capabilities; another statistical segment categorising experts according to their areas of expertise and scientific organisations; a segment related to communicating scientific news and publishing information on meetings and activities; another segment will help users communicate through social media networks with experts from different fields, and with the Ministry of Agriculture’s departments and technical staff.

During the meeting, the officials reviewed the results of the final stage of a study evaluating agricultural production of major field crops (wheat, barley, meat, and vegetables) and food price and availability over the last two years (2015-2016) in Libya. This study, was jointly conducted by FAO and the French Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED). It reflected the outcome of survey data collected from 550 people in different parts of Libya.

For his part, El-Tellisi expressed his gratitude to FAO Director-General and to the Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative, commending FAO efforts to support Libya’s agriculture and food sector at the current critical stage of its history. He said that despite progress made in implementing a number of projects under the technical cooperation programme, Libya’s security situation hinders other projects. He expressed his hopes for the security situation to improve so that the programme can achieve its goals.