@FAO-RNE participants with FAO ADG Absessalam Ouldahmed

FAO Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa concluded a two days’ workshop on Small Scale Agriculture Regional initiative with a clear roadmap to priorities.
The second Regional workshop for the Regional Initiative on "Small Scale Agriculture" was held in Cairo on 14 and 15 December 2015, and was attended by representatives and high ranked officials from 8 countries of the region, in addition to global and regional stakeholders.
The workshop brought together representatives of the focus countries of the regional initiative on SSA (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, West Bank and Gaza Strip), Representatives of several Governments, prestigious Research Centres, International Organizations, NGOs and FAO Technical Officers from Head Quarters and other regional offices committed to Small Scale Agriculture and Family Farming.
The FAO’s II Regional Workshop took place in the context of FAO’s Strategic Objective 3 on “Rural Poverty Reduction”.
Building on the lessons learnt from the first two years of implementation of the Regional Initiative, this workshop brought together Government, stakeholders and FAO Representatives from NENA focus countries to exchange ideas, build ownership and agree on the way forward for the Regional Initiative on small-scale agriculture.

The meeting was an opportunity to present the results of the regional study on identification of existing typologies contributing to reducing rural poverty and improving food security, as well as presenting the main components and results of the Regional Initiative, and debate focus countries’ priorities in relation to the Regional Initiative for 2016/17.
In his closing remarks, Mr. Abdessalam OuldAhmed, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa set out the way forward into 6 points for further work:
1- Benefit from CIRAD’s study on typology of SSA in the region to build evidence in the formulation and advocacy of actions to be taken to improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers and reduce rural poverty;
2- Reflect in future work the importance of policies, institutions and governance within a support framework for smallholder farming including producers’ organizations, cooperatives and other types of assistance at community level;
3- Invest on sustainable productivity of small-scale farms. Introduce innovative technologies on land productivity and labour productivity which will help decreasing the levels of in-country migration;
4- Better understand the linkages between the small-scale farming and food systems: patterns on consumption and production preserving natural resources;
5- Give a special attention to policies favouring the employment in rural areas for young generations with a gender focuses;
6- Assist the small-scale farmers building resilience to adapt to climate change from the investments and policy perspectives, after COP21 and the recent possibility to access to Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Global Environment Fund (GEF).

In addition to these points, the ADG confirmed FAO support to the finalization of a solid analytical report with a framework of potential solutions to enhance the small-scale agriculture.
The overall objective of the Regional Initiative “Small-Scale Agriculture for Inclusive Development” is to support countries to reduce rural poverty in the region through a cohesive programme, addressing small-scale agriculture development. In line with FAOs new Strategic Framework and Country Programming Frameworks, the Regional Initiative provides a cohesive framework to better support countries and value ongoing and future activities.