Working to fulfil its mandate and help countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, FAO is funded in part by its regular budget and increasingly through voluntary contributions. Those extra-budgetary contributions come from FAO Member Countries, multilateral organizations, international financing institutions, the private sector, and other sources.
Total resources mobilized by FAO for Europe and Central Asia in 2025 (until the end of September) was USD 54.3 million. The amount was almost the same as the previous year and above the annual average of the resources mobilized in the region in previous years, except for 2022. In 2025, 82 percent of the amount was allocated for development projects, with the rest slated for emergency activities.
In 2025, the five major resource partners of FAO in Europe and Central Asia were the Green Climate Fund (GCF) with USD 29 million, followed by Switzerland with USD 6 million, the World Food Programme (WFP) with almost USD 5 million, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with USD 4 million, and the UNDP Administered Trust Funds (UNJ) with USD 2.6 million.
Major resource partners in 2025
| GCF - Green Climate Fund (Accreditation Master Agreement and Readiness and Preparatory Support) | 54% |
| Switzerland | 11% |
| World Food Programme Administered Trust Fund | 9% |
| GEF - Global Environment Facility | 8% |
| UND - UNDP Administered Trust Funds | 5% |
| Other resource partners | 14% |
These new projects were approved for implementation mainly in Serbia, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Türkiye, and Georgia.
South–South cooperation
At the moment, China, Czechia, Hungary, the Russian Federation and Türkiye are the key partner countries providing solutions to the region for agricultural development and food security through the South-South cooperation.
FAO and Türkiye signed a South–South cooperation agreement in 2021 regarding the deployment of Turkish experts under the FAO–Türkiye Partnership Programme to provide technical expertise and knowledge to Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan and to help develop solutions for common development issues in the food and agricultural sector.
In 2025, FAO in Europe and Central Asia launched and advanced several impactful South–South and triangular cooperation initiatives across the region. Notably, a Türkiye-supported project in Borno State, Nigeria, empowered smallholder farmers through training, demonstrations and infrastructure, enabling local chickpea and lentil production and improving nutrition and income. In Azerbaijan, a partnership with Türkiye facilitated strategic reforms in the Agro Services Agency, enhancing technical capacities across key agricultural domains. Additionally, a new joint project between FAO and the United Nations Office for South–South Cooperation on climate-smart agriculture will begin in December in the Fergana Valley, aiming to boost climate resilience and sustainable farming practices in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.