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FAO today hosted a high-level delegation from Japan in a bid to bolster both sides of a strong relationship between the UN agency responsible for fighting hunger and its second-largest donor. Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries sent a number of senior officials to the meeting, one of a series aimed at crafting a strategic plan for further advancing the key partnership. The broader Japanese delegation underscored the increasingly geopolitical nature of assuring food security and putting agriculture on a sustainable and responsible footing in an era of globalization and border-hopping challenges such as...

Canadatoday announced it will contribute an additional $1 million to international bodies that develop the standards for food safety and plant protection. Lawrence MacAulay, Canada's Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, told FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva of the decision while both leaders were in Berlin attending high-level meetings including Sunday's meeting of agriculture ministers from the G20 countries.

Cancun, Mexico - More than 190 countries at a major United Nations conference in Mexico have pledged to step up efforts to integrate biodiversity into the policies of their agriculture, forests and fisheries sectors. On 3 December, countries adopted the Cancun Declaration, named after the Mexican city where the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), known as 'COP13,' is being held. The Declaration represents an unprecedented recognition from the international community that biodiversity protection must involve different governmental and economic sectors and not just environment ministries. At the closure of the COP13 High Level...

Budapest, Hungary – The Director-General met today with Hungarian Minister for Agriculture Sandor Fazekas, on the margins of the Regional Symposium on Agroecology for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems in Europe and Central Asia.

Last week, FAO and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) signed a Readiness Framework Agreement to enable developing countries to partner with FAO on activities enhancing their access to GCF. The agreement was signed during the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) in Marrakech (7–18 November 2016) by Ms Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General, Mr Javier Manzanares, GCF Executive Director a.i., and Mr Ousseynou Nakoulima, GCF Country Programming Director. The GCF supports countries in readiness and preparatory activities to enhance their ownership. Country readiness funding is a cross-cutting programme that aims to improve the effectiveness of...

Significant results were achieved by projects supported by the FAO Multipartner Programme Support Mechanism (FMM) in 2015, as outlined by the FMM 2015 Annual Report now available. The FMM is a funding mechanism for partners willing to contribute unearmarked funds or slightly earmarked funds. Created in 2010, the FMM is currently supported by the Kingdoms of Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden.  The FMM has been conceived as a tool to support FAO’s Strategic Framework.  “The FMM is unique as it gives FAO the freedom to allocate funds where the Organization believes they are most needed and effective to achieve FAO’s Strategic Objectives approved...

The Republic of the Sudan has donated $150,000 to support the work of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), a unique international coordinating body for policy issues related to food and nutrition, hosted by FAO. The funds will help CFS strengthen the governance of food security and nutrition in countries of the global South. Following a call for assistance from FAO, a donation agreement was signed between Sudan and the UN Agency, which will administer the contributions through its multi-donor trust fund. The project will be completed by the end of 2017. "CFS needs long term investment by all...

19 October 2016, Rome - FAO and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) have joined forces to increase job and business opportunities for young people in rural areas of Benin, Cameroon, Malawi and Niger through a $4 million grant made available by the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund. The agreement signed today by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency (NPCA) Chief Executive Officer,...

FAO and the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM) will work together in a new partnership to improve the state of natural resources in the wetlands of Africa's Sahel region, in particular the sustainable management of migratory water birds which are crucial for food security for the local populations. The agreement signed today between FAO and FFEM, which co-funds one third of the 5 million euros project, is specifically targeting the four main wetland areas in the Sahel region which are distributed between Chad, Egypt, Mali, Senegal and Sudan. The "Strengthening expertise in Sub -Saharan Africa on birds and their rational use...

7 September 2016, Rome - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and FAO have signed a $15 million agreement aimed at boosting the capacity of developing countries to track key agricultural data -information that is essential to good policymaking and that will help track progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).