The United Arab Emirates and FAO
Partnering to achieve strategic objectives and cooperation in research and information technology
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) joined FAO in 1973 and, in 2001, the Subregional Office for the Gulf Cooperation Council States and Yemen opened in the Emirates. This increased FAO’s capacity to provide services to the UAE as well as to the GCC states and Yemen. The Office provides expertise and technical support to the GCC states and Yemen in various areas, including the environment, water management, agriculture, fisheries and livestock resources, food safety, and agricultural investment support.
COnTACTs
Sub-regional Office for the Gulf Cooperation Council States and Yemen
FAO Representation Building 4C/4 (3rd Floor), Street No. 6 PO Box 62072 Abu Dhabi
Phone number: + 971 6586774 Email: [email protected]
FAO appreciation for the role of the UAE in achieving food security
In March 2014 FAO announced that the UAE was one of 17 countries in the developing world that had succeeded in reducing levels of malnutrition to less than 5 percent during the period 1990-2013. In awarding this prize, FAO declared that the UAE had made successful efforts in addressing the negative impact of changing socio-economic conditions on its food security.
The UAE is also a main donor state in the area of international development, humanitarian efforts and contributions to strengthening food security.
FAO adopts UAE date-palm oases as agricultural heritage sites
In March 2015, FAO announced that Al-Ayn and Liwa date-palm oases in the UAE had been added to the growing number of ecosystems deemed by FAO to have international importance in terms of being living repositories of genetic and biological resources and cultural heritage. Ayn and Liwa oases are renowned as models of historical agricultural systems and palm groves which have become the main producers of dates in the UAE. The UAE has been engaged in implementing the programme to activate date-palm oases by relying on measures such as protection from urban sprawl, restoration of historical systems of irrigation (aflaj), and reapplication of
historical systems of agricultural management. 10/2015
Cooperation in water management
Recognizing that water management is a major challenge for the agriculture sector in countries that suffer from water scarcity, the UAE signed a partnership agreement with FAO. The purpose of the partnership is to improve research cooperation in order to help member countries increase agricultural productivity and food security by seeking solutions to water scarcity in environmentally marginal areas.
Partnership to provide up-to-date agricultural information
Aiming to increase the availability of information on matters related to food and agriculture, FAO recently signed a formal partnership agreement with the UAE News Agency (WAM). By virtue of the agreement, WAM will publish articles about the role of food in human wellbeing, with the aim of informing the public throughout the Gulf region and beyond in two languages, Arabic and English.
WAM is the latest media party to enter into partnership with FAO, which appreciates the high value of the role of the media in the global fight against hunger.
Joint activities between FAO and the UAE
In the framework of strengthening the application of international phytosanitary standards, in February 2013 the FAO Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa, in coordination with the International Plant Protection Convention and the
Ministry of Environment and Water in the UAE, held a training workshop on the application of phytosanitary measures relating to world trade. The workshop contributed to the development of the capabilities of specialists and inspectors in plant quarantine in the UAE.
Some 20 specialists took part in the workshop, representing many concerned agencies from the various Emirates.
The 29th session of the Desert Locust Commission in the Central Region. The Desert Locust Commission, was established within the framework of efforts to help the UAE ensure protection against agricultural pests and infectious animal diseases, and to reduce their effects on people and the environment. Agricultural emergencies and transboundary pests are a major area of concentration for FAO and are a component of its strategic objectives. Consequently, locust control has been given high importance, and FAO has supported efforts to control this pest locusts at the global level. FAO is helping to control locusts through global monitoring, early warning via the Emergency Centre for Locust Operations, facilitation of international cooperation, provision of technical support to countries, and provision of assistance in emergency control operations.
FAO Regional Initiatives involving the UAE
Building resilience for Food security and nutrition in the near East and north Africa: This FAO Regional Initiative supports the countries of the region in improving food security and nutrition while promoting social cohesion.
The UAE is one of key focal countries to be implementing this initiative, which aims to build the capacity of families, communities and agricultural systems to pre-empt the negative impacts of human-induced and natural disasters as well as to cope with them when they occur and recover rapidly in the aftermath.
small-scale Agriculture for Inclusive Development in the near East and north Africa: This initiative provides a coherent framework to promote smallholder agriculture as a means to reduce poverty in the countries of the Near East and North Africa. The initiative facilitates coordination on the institutional level between member countries to promote political and institutional frameworks appropriate to the elimination of hunger and the enhancement of food security and nutrition.
Regional Initiative on Water scarcity in the near East and north Africa launched by FAO to support countries to coordinate their policies, governance, and practices relating to the management of this strategic resource. Within the framework of the Regional Initiative on Water Scarcity in the Near East and North Africa, countries have developed a cooperative strategy for the sustainable agriculture water management which is proceeding through a regional partnership between stakeholders participating in the initiative.
“We have a golden opportunity to end hunger in our lifetime.
This would be the greatest legacy we could leave to future generations.”
José Graziano da Silva FAO Director-General
© FAO
