Secretary of State for Fisheries, Mr. Elidio de Araujo, USAID Mission Director Zema Semunegus, and FAO Representative for Timor-Leste Rajendra Aryal signing the agreement documents

USAID is providing $4 million to improve food security, nutrition and resilience through FAO in Timor-Leste. This was announced in the launching ceremony of “Transforming agrifood systems to support food security, nutrition, and improved resilience to crises" project. The President of Republic Democratic of Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horta, representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF), USAID’s Deputy Assistant Administrator and Chief Climate Officer, Gillian Caldwell, and FAO attended as reported by GMNTV, G-NEWS, Tatoli English, Hatutan, Business Timor, RTTL.Ep, and Timor Post. “The project is aligned with the national priority plan of the Government, UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, FAO’s Country Programming Framework and FAO’s strategic priorities at global level to achieve Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment, and a Better Life, leaving no-one behind,” said FAO Representative in Timor-Leste, Rajendra Aryal.

“FAO, together with MAF will expand adoption of nature-positive and climate-smart agricultural practices to new villages in 10 municipalities, build the capacities of farming households to develop enterprises and resilient agrifood value chains, and increase accessibility and affordability of diversified nutritious foods and promote nutrition behavioural change,” he added.