he Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Libya have committed themselves to working together to develop the country’s agriculture sector and improve food security.
At a meeting held in the premises of the FAO Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa (NENA), Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the NENA region, discussed with Eng. Abdulmunem Mohammed Sidqah, Director for International Cooperation of the Libyan Ministry of Agriculture and H.E. Mahmoud El-Tellisi, Libya Permanent Representative to FAO, and other senior officials from the Libyan Ministry of Agriculture, the growing cooperation between FAO and the Libyan government in light of the latest agreement signed in early August 2017.
The Government of Libya signed a USD 3.5 million agreement with FAO on 1 August 2017 to strengthen its technical and functional national capacities in agriculture. The project aims to build capacities and ensure more efficient and effective governmental agricultural support services to achieve greater synergies and impacts.
El-Tellisi expressed satisfaction with the cooperation between Libya and FAO and stressed Libya’s interest to work closely with the organization at the technical level. “We have completed the most important and difficult phase of planning the projects and getting everything in order,” he said. “Now we will begin to implement the projects on the ground. We have received all the needed support and assistance from FAO and their full cooperation to support our future projects in Libya.”
For his part, Ould Ahmed said: “FAO’s cooperation with Libya covers a wide range of areas, including agriculture production, farmer resilience, animal and pest disease control, and capacity building, and we will be pushing soon for efforts to support policy formulation.”
The cooperation programme between FAO and Libya began in 2009 with the signing of a USD 71 million agreement. Assistance has included policy advice and technical support to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and contribution to sustainable agricultural development, food security, and economic development, including diversification, in line with national priorities and goals.
The high level meeting was attended by FAO senior officials Nabil Gangi, NENA Deputy Regional Representative; Ayman Omer, NENA Senior Field Programme Officer; Mohammed Al-Ansi, Officer in Charge, FAO Libya; and Abdalla Zaied, NENA Senior Advisor.
