Ireland’s total contribution to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, which leads international efforts to defeat hunger, was €26 million from 2014 to 2020.
The largest share of Ireland’s voluntary funding during this time period went to FAO’s efforts to “increase the resilience of livelihoods to threats and crises and in its work to eradicate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition”, according to the Department of Agriculture.
Minister McConalogue said that Ireland is “proud to join forces with FAO in tackling the root causes of hunger and poverty”.
“Taking a food systems approach, Ireland and FAO are finding new and better ways to promote sustainable agriculture and to achieve multiple Sustainable Development Goals,” the minister added.
Image source: ©FAO
‘These efforts resonate deeply with Irish farm families’
Ireland became a member of the FAO in 1946 and over those 75 years, “has remained a committed partner in the global fight against hunger and malnutrition”.
“This report demonstrates the valuable contribution that Ireland, through its partnership with FAO, has made to the lives and livelihoods of smallholder farmers and their families throughout the world,” the minister continued.
I know that these efforts resonate deeply with Irish farm families.
Ireland’s 2020 annual subscription to the UN FAO was €1.64 million.
Additional funding of €2.14 million was also provided for specific FAO projects, which included: improving food security for refugees in the conflict-affected area of the Lake Chad basin; enhancing surveillance and control of the desert locust invasion in Kenya; and support of the UN Food Systems Summit action track on access to safe and nutritious food.