Opportunities for youth and professionals to contribute to the fight against hunger and the move towards sustainable agriculture

Figure: Inspecting cabbage plants at a Farmer Field School in Thiaye, Senegal.

FAO 16 June 2017, Rome - Deepening ties between FAO and the United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) should make opportunities to join the fight against hunger and rural poverty more accessible to young people as well as to experts who wish to contribute their time and skills.

Daniel Gustafson, FAO Deputy Director General and UNV Executive Coordinator Olivier Adam signed a Memorandum of Understanding today aiming at scaling-up their collaboration and making rapid deployments easier.  

The UNV fields around 6,600 UN Volunteers from more than 150 countries working with dozens of UN organizations and Peacekeeping Operations in more than 120 countries.  FAO currently has 17 UN Volunteers posted in Chad, Honduras, Mongolia, Viet Nam and a host of other duty stations.  

"Tapping the spirit and inclusive nature of volunteerism is vital in our fight against hunger and rural poverty," said Gustafson. "FAO's efforts to support countries in fostering resilience and sustainability will benefit greatly from the UN Volunteers' contributions and skills."

"UNV is delighted to deepen its already positive ties with FAO. UNV has a strong track record in poverty reduction, climate change and resilience, which underscores a strong complementarity with FAO," said Adam. "Our UN Volunteers have an array of specializations that serve the Sustainable Development Goals and FAO's five strategic objectives. I welcome this opportunity to expand our collaboration."

UN Volunteers may be used in several technical areas such as agriculture, fishery, forestry, natural resources. Those UN Volunteers deployed with FAO are working in fields ranging from soil restoration to nutrition and youth engagement among other projects.

See more: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/896376/icode/