South Centre, FAO Sign Agreement Promoting Tech Transfer, Innovation

The intergovernmental South Centre and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation have signed a five-year agreement to help the global south fight malnutrition, reduce poverty, and address climate change consequences. The memorandum of understanding was signed on the margins of the recent climate change discussion held in Marrakesh.

The agreement aims at improving food security, boosting rural development, and addressing climate change in the Global South, under the umbrella of South-South cooperation, according to a FAO press release.

It was signed on 11 November, alongside the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) in Marrakesh, Morocco, being held from 7 to 18 November.

The South Centre and the FAO have “agreed to broaden the scope of their joint activities, including capacity building for developing countries to strengthen their ability to implement sustainable development policies, facilitate exchange of information and knowledge, and promote technology transfer and innovation,” the FAO release said.

The release also said that both organisations will promote sustainable management of natural resources, and apply more sustainable agricultural practices including organic and agro-ecology farming.

A South Centre release states: “This partnership comes at a good time when cooperation among developing countries [is] gaining a new momentum and looking ahead at the commemorations of the 40th anniversary of the first UN Conference on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries held in Buenos Aires in 1978, a landmark event for South-South Cooperation and for the role of UN agencies and other international organizations in boosting such format of cooperation.”

 

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