EC and Rome-based UN Agencies sign Strategic Framework of Cooperation

Rome, 27 June 2011 – The European Commission (EC), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have signed today in Rome a new Strategic Framework of Cooperation to increase the capacity of the international community to deliver effective, coordinated, timely and sustainable support to Food Security and Nutrition.

By joining forces, the four partners are seeking to achieve higher collective impact on the world's food security. The Strategic Framework of Cooperation defines the complementary roles of the three Rome-based UN Agencies, putting emphasis on the coherence of their comparative advantages and core mandates enhanced through strengthened coordination and collaboration.

The Strategic Framework of Cooperation highlights the key priorities for food security and nutrition where all four partners will work together particularly on the basis of their converging objectives and mandates. Finally, it will increase global awareness and visibility of the partnership between the European Commission and the three Rome-based UN Agencies in the fight against hunger.

The four partners are unanimously committed to an adequate monitoring and evaluation of the Strategic Framework of Cooperation to ensure that it will genuinely lead to increased efficiency and more importantly to improve the economic and social well-being of the one billion people who live in chronic hunger.

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Press release No.: IFAD/42/2011

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested over US$12.9 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering more than 370 million people to break out of poverty. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the United Nation’s food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 166 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).