Under the Strategic Framework, FAO has made resilience a corporate priority. Its approach focuses on supporting people, institutions and state systems to absorb, adapt and transform when confronted with shocks and threats affecting their food security and agriculture-based livelihoods. In addition to having a strategic objective dedicated to the concept, FAO RNE is making significant progress on the implementation of its regional initiative “Building Resilience for Food Security and Nutrition in the Near East and North Africa”.
Climate change, economic crises and armed conflicts are making it more and more difficult for farmers, herders and fishers in the NENA region to sustain their livelihoods. Building communities’ resilience is key to help them cope with these crises.
The workshop helped participants gain a clearer understanding of what resilience means, particularly in the conflict settings faced by many countries in the region. Participants took stock of the lessons learned in the first two years of implementing the regional resilience initiative, shared experiences and discussed ways of scaling up good practices. The session with donors and partners re-affirmed the need for enhanced collaboration among different humanitarian and development actors in order to design integrated packages of interventions to better serve the needs of affected communities.
The workshop brought together FAO staff from country offices in Sudan, Yemen, West Bank and Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Mauritania, Somalia and Kenya, as well as technical officers from FAO RNE and headquarters. A session with partners was attended by representatives from the United Nations Development Programme, World Food Programme, Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, the UN Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator for Jordan, as well as donor representatives from the United States of America, European Union, ECHO, Italy, Sweden, Canada, the Netherlands and the World Bank.
Source: FAO.