FAO Director General, President Yoweri Museveni meet, commit to support refugees through sustainable agriculture
The FAO Director- General,José Graziano da Silva, reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to strengthening partnership with national Governments on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals on ending poverty in all its forms everywhere and to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.
Jose Graziano da Silva mentioned this while meeting Uganda’s President, His ExcellencyYoweri Kaguta Museveni, during his three day visit to Uganda from 29-31 August 2017.
The Director-General applauded Uganda’s refugee model, enshrined in its Self-Reliance Strategy (SRS), as progressive and exemplary. Uganda currently hosts about 1.38 million refugees and through the SRS model, refugees can access small plots of land for farming, enroll their children in Government-aided schools, and engage in income-generating activities.
Whereas the SRS model offers key lessons for other countries that host refugees, Jose Graziano highlighted the need to reshape policies on refugees to focus on sustainability for both the host communities and refugees, given that more refugees are entering the country on a daily basis.
Mr. Museveni called on the Director-General to look beyond agriculture as a means of sustaining the livelihoods of refugees. He urged FAO to consider supporting other livelihood support activities for refugees, such as skilling and facilitating access to capital for small scale enterprises.
Signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with Government of Uganda
During his visit, the Director-General signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Uganda to strengthen strategic partnership through South-South and Triangular Cooperation. The South-South Cooperation Project involves support from one country to another and, in this case, the Project is funded by the Government of People’s Republic of China. Chinese technicians are posted to Uganda to work side-by-side with Ugandan counterparts, in a strategic exchange of knowledge and expertise.
“The South-South Cooperation is unique because it is not the ordinary ‘donor-recipient’ model of cooperation but a horizontal exchange of ideas and technologies and it is working well in Uganda”, said Jose Graziano da Silva.
“Through support from the Government of China, FAO will implement the third phase of the South-South Project to a tune of USD $2million”, he added.
The Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Honourable Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja signed the MoU on behalf of Government of Uganda. The Minister lauded FAO for the South-South Cooperation project which supported introduction and scaling up of new technologies and enhanced technical capacity of farmers.
“Under the South to South Cooperation, FAO supported us introduce new rice and millet varieties, more fruit and mushroom varieties, and rice-fish culture technique, among others. We are currently scaling up these technologies,” said the minister, adding that “it is our desire to continue cooperating with the Government of People’s Republic of China through the South to South Cooperation.”
FAO implemented the South-South Cooperation Project in Uganda since 2012 and, together with the Chinese Government, introduced 25 new technologies, 17 new crop varieties, and built capacity of farmers and technical staff, in aquaculture and livestock. Some of the technologies promoted under the South-South Cooperation Project are mushrooms, apples, hybrid rice, foxtail millet, and rice-fish culture.
Jose Graziano da Silva also visited two refugee settlements in Adjumani District, where he commissioned a micro-irrigation system and helped distribute crop and vegetable seeds to more than 1,000 refugee and host community households. During his trip to Adjumani, the Director-General called for greater funding for a sustainable response to the refugee crisis in Uganda. Uganda requires around $2 billion annually for 2017-2020 to address refugee needs, and donors have so far only pledged around $358 million.