Tunis/Tunisia — A new US$ 5.5 million package of technical assistance to improve food security in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and the West Bank and Gaza was launched on Monday by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) marking 25 years of joint effort towards more sustainable agrifood systems.
The joint initiative, which will be launched next January, is a timely response to the crisis in grain markets, which has made global food security more precarious. It will help governments revisit some of their agrifood policies, for example, by improving the long-term resilience of the grain value chain, reads a EBRD/FAO joint statement.
The package supports public and private investment in upgrading national grain import systems, including the development of more efficient procurement and better storage infrastructure.
Lastly, it will help countries re-assess their own food production potential, looking at climate and environmental constraints and maximising the value of local production, including through trade diversification.
The new technical assistance package complements the EBRD’s individual financing for these countries. Tunisia, for instance, has received a US$ 150.5 million loan to buy cereals in the face of the global markets’ crisis.
“Transforming agrifood systems calls for a range of technical solutions, enabling policies and investment. Together with the EBRD and other partners, FAO has been supporting Members to move forward on these three fronts simultaneously to ensure the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life for all – leaving no one behind,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.
For his part EBRD President Renaud-Basso said “boosting food security is one of the EBRD’s priorities and, together with the FAO, we are able to put our joint expertise in finance and technical solutions to the benefit of the regions where we both operate. The new technical assistance programme in the southern and eastern Mediterranean is the latest example.”
The FAO and the EBRD began cooperating in 1997, which has paved the way for 200 joint technical assistance projects worth US$ 60 million.
The joint efforts have been focusing on supporting the development of sustainable agrifood value chains in eastern and central Europe, Central Asia and the southern and eastern Mediterranean, combining the FAO’s technical and policy facilitation skills with the EBRD’s investment capacity and expertise.