NEW STRATEGY NEEDED FOR MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

 

Four-Pronged Attack on Hunger and Poverty

(Reissued as received.)

ROME, 24 May (FAO) -- The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today released a discussion paper that proposes a new four-pronged approach to help developing countries achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  The new strategy was detailed in a paper delivered at a Special Event on the Millennium Goals, held in conjunction with a meeting of the Committee on World Food Security.

The Goals grew out of the Millennium Summit held five years ago at the UN General Assembly, and included goals set by a number of earlier summits including FAO’s 1996 World Food Summit.  The eight goals were to provide an agenda for action toward reducing hunger and poverty in the world.  However, progress to date on most of the goals has been disappointing.

Internal Review Leads FAO to More Targeted Approach

FAO held an internal review on the Millennium Development Goals, which concluded that the organization’s work is well aligned to support the member countries in their efforts to meet the goals, but that a more targeted approach was necessary if the goals were to be met on time.

The proposed FAO strategy would focus action in four specific areas:

-- advocacy and support to the MDG initiative;

-- better targeting of FAO’s programmes;

-- pursuit of strategic alliances and partnerships; 

-- strategic support to country-level cooperation. 

According to the FAO paper, the Organization will campaign for wider recognition of the critical role of the rural and agricultural sectors in meeting the Goals.  It will focus on policy and capacity-building support to countries incorporating the Millennium Development Goals in their national development strategies.

FAO will seek to reinforce existing partnerships and create new ones based on common objectives and concrete programmes of action.  It will actively support the drive for greater harmonization and alignment of UN assistance in order to reduce burdens on national governments, according to the paper.  FAO will also seek closer relationships within countries with civil society and other non-governmental organizations concerned with agriculture, rural development, food security and sustainable management of national resources.

Priorities for National Development Strategies

FAO will develop flexible medium-term priority frameworks for cooperation, agreed with individual governments, to identify priorities for support in the context of national development strategies.

FAO said it will refine its criteria for intervention, taking into account the needs of countries at different levels of development and its own comparative advantage and take concrete action to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of its decentralized structure in line with the decisions of its governing bodies.

Finally, FAO said it is “committed to making changes that may be necessary, and to do so has embarked on a process of critically re-examining the way it is organized and structured, its methods of working and its role within the UN system.”

For further information, please, contact:  John Riddle, Information Officer, FAO, e-mail:  john.riddle@fao.org, tel.:  +39 06 570 53259.

For radio interviews, please, call:  Liliane Kambirigi, Radio Information Officer, tel.:  +39 06 570 53223.

Television:  Bou Downes, TV Information Officer, tel.:  +39) 06 570 55980/52518.

Editors:  FAO’s photo library offers hi-quality images free of charge.  Visit http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/photo/.

Online news from FAO:  http://www.fao.org/newsroom/.

FAO media office:  media-office@fao.org.

* *** *