The talks, NaijaAgroNet gathered centred on Sustainable Development Goals and improving outreach to Japanese
public.
The meeting
hosted by FAO saw a delegation from Japan attending in a bid for both sides to
commit to a strong relationship between the UN agency responsible for fighting
hunger and its second-largest contributor to the core budget.
Japan's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries sent a number of senior officials to the meeting, one of a series
aimed at crafting a strategic plan for further advancing the key partnership.
The broader Japanese delegation underscored the increasingly geopolitical
nature of assuring food security and putting agriculture on a sustainable and
responsible footing in an era of globalization and border-hopping challenges
such as climate change.
Japan is a
major advocate of the Sustainable Development Agenda, which targets the
eradication of extreme poverty and hunger everywhere by 2030.
Along with
being the No. 2 donor to FAO's regular budget after the United States of
America, Japan has been a major funder of emergency relief projects, notably in
Afghanistan and in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. It also by
choice boosts FAO's resources for work on the Codex Alimentarius - the world's
food safety guidelines - as well as capacity-building efforts to help
developing countries assess their vulnerability to climate stress, South-South
cooperation initiatives sharing Japanese rice-growing and aquaculture
techniques with African nations.
Japan is also a
robust sponsor of the Globally Important Agricultural
Heritage Systems conservation effort and is home to eight of
those designated sites.
The meeting
aimed at advancing coordinated approaches to key goals, including concrete
actions and longer-term plans that can further strengthen the partnership and
make progress towards the SDGs.
In addition,
NaijaAgroNet reports that Japanese officials including those in charge of
economic security, international organizations and agriculture, were briefed on
FAO's resilience-boosting programmes for emergency efforts, the ongoing effort
to combat desertification in the Sahel and Horn of Africa, nutrition
initiatives in Africa, various developments in the fisheries and forestry
sectors, as well as on FAO's work in linking smallholder farmers to commercial
markets, its partnership strategy with the private sector, and on the
guidelines for Responsible Investment in
Agriculture and Food Systems.
The visitors
also discussed FAO's Strategic Framework and 2018-21 Medium Term Plan and the
results-based management of the Organization's current activities.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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