The Netherlands has always been a generous member and a force for innovation in FAO. Thanks to the Netherlands’ kind support, FAO has been able to strengthen global food governance, improve the management of natural resources, build inclusive and nutrition-sensitive food systems, and strengthen the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. This is critical to enable impactful programmes that address shared goals such as increasing agricultural productivity, financial inclusion of family and women farmers, and resilience building. The Netherlands does this while supporting FAO’s Regular Programme budget through the Multi-partner Programme Support Mechanism (FMM), which creates tremendous opportunities for more flexible and cost-effective interventions.
FAO is grateful for the Netherlands’ commitment to increasing food security, ending hunger and malnutrition, and reducing poverty and social inequality, outlined in the country’s development cooperation policy “Investing in Perspective: Good for the World, Good for the Netherlands”. Food security as a thematic priority is of the utmost importance and FAO applauds the Netherlands’ development policy focus on combating the root causes of poverty and forced migration, while improving climate protection, humanitarian aid, private sector development, women’s rights and gender equality. The Netherlands’ particular emphasis on the nutritional status of adolescents and integrating reproductive health and gender aspects into food security programmes is noteworthy.
Through increased collaboration over the years, FAO has been able to deliver on a myriad of areas including building resilience against food shortages and undernutrition, reducing food losses and food waste, investing in climate-smart agriculture, and stimulating inclusive and sustainable growth in the agricultural sector, while promoting investments in the food chain together with the private sector. For example, FAO is strengthening food safety in Bangladesh, and sustainable water management in Yemen, and enabling policy-makers through evidence-based monitoring and analyses. Through the FMM support, FAO is leveraging rural business opportunities for youth, scaling up climate-smart agriculture, and supporting productive and zero-waste value chains. Being solid partners in emergency interventions allows for resilience building in disaster-prone regions in Ethiopia and addressing migration through climate-responsive strategies in Lebanon.
The Netherlands has engaged with FAO in a phenomenal manner during the last decade. In the period 2008–2018, the country provided FAO with assessed and voluntary contributions to the tune of EUR 198 million (USD 233 million). Voluntary contributions were on a positive trend since 2011 and peaked in 2016, with a EUR 22 million (USD 26 million) contribution to support resilience and crisis response in Lebanon, Ethiopia and Mozambique. Likewise, in November 2017, the Netherlands provided EUR 6 million (USD 7 million) to FAO to address severe hunger and build resilience in South Sudan. Moreover, the most financed region in the period 2017–2018 was Africa attracting 68 percent of total contributions.
Most of Dutch contributions were directed to resilience and crisis response actions, attracting 94 percent of total funding.
FAO looks forward to continuing its strong and engaging work with the Netherlands and is eager to harness the country’s energy towards developing new and improved mechanisms for flexible funding and for private sector alignment — essential for financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).