South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) is becoming an increasingly pivotal framework for promoting and supporting collaboration among countries of the Global South facing important development challenges, especially in agriculture and rural development.

As such, key countries, such as Bangladesh, are investing in this modality, to expand their technologies, knowledge transfer and capacity development.

The Hon. Dr. Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, Minister of Agriculture for the People's Republic of Bangladesh, in his recent visit to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 23 October 2023, expressed his appreciation of FAO’s SSTC support to its Member Countries and in particular to his country.

He also discussed potential joint collaborations between Bangladesh and FAO’s SSTC division, led by its Director, Mr. Anping Ye. One such proposal is for the potential provision of technical assistance and implementation support to the Program on Agricultural and Rural Transformation for Nutrition, Entrepreneurship, and Resilience in Bangladesh (PARTNER), funded by the World Bank (WB) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

PARTNER, a Program for Results (PforR), contributes to the implementation of the Government of Bangladesh’s own Plan of Action of the National Agricultural Policy 2018, with an implementation period of 10 years, up to 2028 – with a financial envelop of USD 543 million.

As a result of the successful discussions held in FAO Headquarters, an official request from the Government of Bangladesh, has tasked FAO to provide technical assistance and implementation support to the Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) of the PARTNER project, with the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division of FAO spearheading the process.

A scoping mission led by Mr. Nafis Khan from FAO’s SSTC Division, with key contributions from the Food Systems and Food Safety Division, Statistics Division, Markets and Trade Division, Land and Water Division, Plant Production and Protection Division, Office of Innovation, Digitalization and Informatics Division, Office of Emergencies and Resilience, Resource Mobilization and Private Sector Partnerships Division, Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division, the Regional Office for the Asia and Pacific, as well as Bangladesh Representation of FAO, is commencing the first week of December in Bangladesh.

The mission will consult with all the Implementation Agencies and conduct stakeholder consultations on each of the ten DLIs’ activities where FAO will provide technical assistance and implementation support leveraging the SSTC modality.

The findings of the scoping mission will be presented to the Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture of Bangladesh, and subsequently to H.E. the Minister of Agriculture, for his endorsement.

These results will be key for defining a potential Unilateral Trust Fund (UTF) project between FAO and the Government of Bangladesh, via the South-South and Triangular Cooperation framework.

Recently, important UTF project documents have been signed by FAO and the Governments of countries such as Uganda and China, who have launched a USD 12.6 million SSC Project (Phase 3), to scale up the agricultural production and productivity of Uganda. The Government of Sierra Leone has also recently agreed to invest USD 5 million, to establish a UTF project led by FAO’s SSTC Division.

FAO strongly believes that innovative solutions in the Global South are fundamental to tackling issues of food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty, at local, national, and global levels.