From July 12 to July 15, 2021 FAO hosted a virtual meeting to address pertinent food and agriculture issues of Europe and Central Asia, against a background of the new FAO Strategic Framework, and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. The 39 FAO Member Nations were joined by the European Union, civil society, farmers’ organizations, and the private sector.
The main aim of this consultation was to facilitate an exchange on the region’s priorities for the period 2022–2025 in preparation for the European Regional Conference next year. It featured country case studies on key priorities and technical topics such as digitalization, ‘One Health’, and nature-based solutions.
Uzbekistan was represented by Nuriddin Kushnazarov, Deputy Permanent Representative of Uzbekistan to the FAO, IFAD and WFP. Speaking at the event, he noted that in support with the FAO, the EU and other international financing institutions Uzbekistan implements Agriculture Development Strategy for the period of 2020-2030. New FAO–Uzbekistan Country Programming Framework (CPF), covering the period 2021–2025, is providing a close partnership and support the Government in implementing the country agenda and help to achieve sustainable food systems along the entire agri-food value chain.
“We recognize the fact that there is huge information, knowledge, innovations, and best practices accumulated in the world to increase the productivity and sustainability, however, every piece of them needs to be transferred to the local realities of the smallholders of each country or even the regions”, – Nuriddin Kushnazarov emphasized.
During the virtual meeting Uzbekistan launched number of initiatives. Recently UN General Assembly declared the Aral Sea region a zone of ecological innovations and technologies, and in this context, Uzbekistan calls upon Member States and the FAO to pay more attention in the region to develop inclusive programs and projects. Uzbekistan also encouraged the FAO to enhance and further support the developing countries of the region through the Hand-in-Hand Initiatives, South-South Cooperation, and building the partnerships within the countries to share the best practices. As per the agenda for the next ERC Uzbekistan proposed to support the importance of the topic Greening agriculture and food production for a transformative food system, and for the interest of the Central Asia region, exploring this topic specifically through the prism of Aral Sea crisis. There was also a proposal to put on the agenda of the FAO to change the name of the Regional Conference for Europe into the Regional Conference for Europe and Central Asia considering the geographical reality of the region, and the membership of the countries in the regional conference.
The four-day Informal Consultation for Europe and Central Asia completed its work with a clear consensus among participants: the region’s food system needs to achieve further resilience and sustainability to help countries meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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