South-South and triangular cooperation can foster smarter agriculture, FAO Director-General tells UN panel

The path to reducing unacceptable hunger levels “lies in our ability to transform the agricultural sector”, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said at a high-level panel.

“We need smarter agriculture that works with, not against, nature, that properly values and remunerates the contributions of small-scale producers, fishers, pastoralists and indigenous peoples not only to food but to preserving biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem services,” he said.

The Director-General made his remarks at “Targeting Hunger: South-South and Triangular cooperation for Transforming Agriculture”, an interactive dialogue held at the United Nations headquarters and convened by the President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

More than 820 million people in the world suffer from hunger as measured by prevalence of undernutrition measure, while two billion people experience moderate of severe food insecurity on a regular basis. according to FAO’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 report.

FAO has been at the forefront of South-South and triangular cooperation for more than 40 years, rising more than $370 million for projects and deploying more than 2,000 experts and technicians to 80 countries to foster the transfer of solutions and technologies. Such exchanges allow for effective dissemination of sustainable and climate-mart agriculture knowledge, experience and technologies to smallholder farmers, said Qu.

The Director-General said the Hand-in-Hand Initiative he launched last year will foster the implementation of high-impact and innovative South-South and triangular cooperation projects. The initiative is designed to identify and target areas where the gap between agricultural potential and actual development is so large that investment can help lift people out of both poverty and hunger.

FAO will provide differentiated capacity building support to its members, helping both providers and recipients with assistance to “enable countries to effectively manage exchanges and engage in impactful and mutually beneficial” South-South and triangular cooperation.

Original source: FAO
Published on 12 February 2020