Rome, Italy, 26 July 2023 – Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) President, H.E. Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser, in Rome to attend the International Conference on Development and Immigration and the UN Food Systems Summit+2, has conferred with UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director General, Dr. Qu Dongyu.

At the meeting, the IsDB President commended the cooperation between the two global icons since 1980s working together to fund agricultural development in Least Developed Member Countries (LDMCs).  

The latest cooperation document between IsDB and FAO and the relevant action plan which continues to focus on current initiatives and new opportunities to collaborate on global, regional, and country level priorities for the effective realization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The MoU focuses on agribusiness value chains; water; agricultural research and STI; statistics; climate-change related response; poverty reduction, women and youth empowerment; and disaster risk reduction, among others.

“At IsDB Group, we are conducting a mapping exercise of affordable and transferrable technologies that can be mainstreamed into agriculture and food security projects,” Dr. Al Jasser stated underlining that food and water security are strategic priorities of IsDB member countries especially for those in arid and semi-arid areas.

He then explained how IsDB has been supporting major food security programs sponsored and implemented by FAO and UNIDO like the Agri-food Systems Transformation (ASTA) project in Suriname.

Exploring collaboration on the development of priority actions and FAO’s assistance to IsDB in preparing systematic and result-oriented agricultural projects in member countries also featured at the discussions.

IsDB is the AAA rated Multilateral Development Bank of the Global South, established in 1975, and FAO is an agency of the United Nations that has led international efforts to defeat hunger since 1945.