New food security project

Djibouti is to benefit from a US $1.2 million food-security improvement project funded by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Saudi Arabia and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The FAO said in a statement issued on Monday that under the scheme, 22 Moroccan agriculture experts and technicians would be sent to Djibouti to work with local specialists. The agreement is part of the FAO's South-South Cooperation Programme, a global initiative aimed at strengthening cooperation among developing countries at different stages of development to improve agricultural productivity and ensure access to food for the general population. The experts will work in Djibouti for three years, contributing their skills in areas such as water management, crop intensification and farming-systems diversification, including animal husbandry and fisheries, according to FAO. "FAO very much welcomes this agreement," said Henri Carsalade, FAO assistant director-general, Technical Cooperation Department, during the signing of the agreement at FAO headquarters in Rome on Monday. "We are sure the Moroccan experts will share their skills to great effect with farmers in Djibouti, as they have done in other African countries." Morocco has already sent experts to Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic and Niger under similar agreements. The South-South Cooperation Programme is part of the FAO's Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) designed to improve lives in some of the world's poorest countries by rapidly increasing food production, improving people's access to food and reducing their vulnerability to climatic events, such as drought and floods. The SPFS is currently being implemented in more than 100 countries and the South-South Cooperation Programme is being carried out in 31 countries, with over 700 experts and technicians working with farming communities, according to the FAO.