13/09/2010

Cordoba (Spain) - Representatives from Governments, the private sector and international foundations discussed today in Cordoba (Spain) the role of the International Treaty’s new ‘Leading the Field’ initiative, an initiative which supports farmers in developing countries to adapt food crops to the effects of climate change and improves food security globally, in the course of a meeting hosted by the Spanish Government.

The meeting, titled “Delivering Global Food Security, is the first of this kind and was hosted in the Palace of La Merced in Cordoba. The event has contributed to strengthening the dialogue between the most committed governments, experts and donors and developed relationships with new prospective investors by exploring the opportunities the Fund presents.

The Fund, established by members of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture as a mechanism to invest in agricultural biodiversity, has received pledges for almost 15 million dollars since December.

The first milestone contribution to the Fund, committing 2.2 million dollars, came from the Spanish Government in December and since then Italy, Australia, Norway, Kenya and the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) have followed.

The session was chaired by Spain’s Secretary General of Rural Affairs Ms Alicia Villauriz Iglesias and had in the programme speakers which included the Gates Foundation, Imperial colleage of London, Oxfam, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The group addressed issues of importance for the Fund including the recent developments in addressing food insecurity globally, the role of the private sector and that of international Foundations. T

he Strategic Plan to Raise 116 millions

The target of raising 116 USD millions dollars for the Fund before the end of 2014 was approved by all the countries of the International Treaty at its Third session in Tunis, in June 2009. Since then, the Secretariat of the International Treaty has worked in the implementation of a Strategic Plan that envisages securing financial support from member countries, the Private Sector and International Foundations.

Shakeel Bhatti, Secretary of the International Treaty, explained that “the Fund is new but very dynamic and that it is foreseen that more than 10 millions will be used in the coming months to support conservation projects with a high-impact potential in developing countries”. Mr Bhatti added that they are now on-going projects funding by the International Treaty in four continents, but the objective is “to increase the number of projects and their impact on food security by scaling-up the amount grants and improving the selection process with the advice of world experts”.

The International Treaty not only facilitates funding the agricultural biodiversity, but also facilitates the exchange of seeds and other genetic material around the world through a gene pool that encloses more than 1.3 millions of accessions of our most important food crops like potato, rice, cassava, wheat and maize.