@FAo-SYR FAO and Syrian officials with stakeholders

15 February 2017, Damascus Syria – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) co-organised a key meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform in presence of key partners with the aim of streamlining coordination efforts to strengthen the agriculture sector in Syria.

The meeting with key national and international stakeholders in the sector,  gathered 60 representatives and participants of line Ministries and technical experts, UN Agencies (FAO, UNDP, WFP, UNFPA), International Organizations (ICARDA, ACSAD), International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society (ICRC, SARC), International NGOs (ACF, NRC and AKF) and Civil Society Organizations (FSCA, SVA).

The Syrian Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, H.E. Ahmad al-Qadri, said that the goal of this initiative is to address the challenges facing  Syria’s agriculture sectors and the bottlenecks in its value chains,  locally, regionally and globally. A coordination mechanism with stakeholders will allow for larger positive impact and avoid duplication of efforts under shared strategy and objectives.

FAO Representative  a.i in Syria, Dr. Adam Yao, presented an overview of FAO’s achievements in Syria since 2011 indicating that more than 250,000 tons of cereals were produced and more than 11 million of livestock were treated to strengthen the resilience for food and nutrition security of over 2 million people across the country.  As more than 9 million people are currently food insecure and over 6 million people are internally displaced, the resilience building approach “is the way forward to eliminate hunger and malnutrition and help stabilize farmers on their lands in Syria, however this calls for a robust partnership and collaboration with all key stakeholders of the sector” said Dr. Yao.

The coordination meeting under the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture with the technical support of FAO is the way forward to streamline stakeholder interventions in the sector, build complementarity and synergies for a higher impact on agriculture production for food and nutrition security of the Syrian people. The huge damage inflicted by the crisis to the crop production alone was estimated at USD 18.5 billion by the Ministry of Agriculture. All stakeholder efforts will be needed to support rebuilding the sector, however sound coordination is required in order to benefit from the comparative advantages of the many stakeholders intervening in the sector. Nonetheless, the continuation of collaborative work by FAO, the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture and all key stakeholders is pivotal in overcoming the challenges in Syria’s agricultural sectors and the food insecurity incline in Syria.

The meeting was concluded with the emphasis on the importance of holding regular coordination meetings at the ministerial level and benefit from the  technical working groups developed by FAO with the support of Ministry of agriculture to systematically prioritize, plan and carry out sound agriculture interventions in a coordinated manner.