FAO and ECLAC Sign Cooperation Agreement to Jointly Advance on the Sustainable Development Goals

Today, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) signed a cooperation agreement between the two organizations.

The ceremony took place at the FAO headquarters in Santiago, Chile, during the annual meeting of the Organization's Representatives in the region. Mario Lubetkin, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, and José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, ECLAC Executive Secretary, led the signing.

The agreement aims to strengthen cooperation between both organizations to achieve common goals in food security, nutrition, and agriculture through a transformative approach toward more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems, promoting better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

The document seeks to establish a cooperation framework that strengthens previous agreements originally signed in 1957 and later in 2018, thus promoting capacity-building, knowledge exchange, resource provision, and the development of financing initiatives to advance the FAO and ECLAC agendas.

During his address, FAO Assistant Director-General highlighted: "The signing of this Agreement between both organizations marks a new milestone in our history of cooperation, solidifying our shared vision and commitment to driving a Latin America and the Caribbean free from hunger and poverty. This agreement strengthens our resolve to face together the major challenges of our time: climate change, biodiversity loss, and increasing social and economic inequality."

Lubetkin also emphasized the extensive list of joint efforts between the two organizations, notably the CELAC SAN Plan 2030, the Amazon Dialogues, and a series of joint publications on food security and rural development, such as Financing for Food Security in Latin America and the Caribbean (a collaboration between ECLAC, FAO, IICA, and WFP) and the Outlook on Agriculture and Rural Development in the Americas (ECLAC, FAO, and IICA), which provides a comprehensive view of the advances and challenges in agrifood systems and rural development.

The ECLAC Executive Secretary stated: "This agreement represents an alliance that strengthens our shared commitment to addressing the challenges of food security, sustainability, and equity in Latin America and the Caribbean. In a global context marked by climate instability, poverty, and food insecurity, this collaboration becomes more crucial than ever. Through this agreement, we consolidate a long-standing strategic collaboration that, I am convinced, will enable us to move toward more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient food systems."