Through a National Action Plan for the agricultural sector in Tunisia, the Tunisian government and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization have announced their collaboration on two initiatives to improve food security and resistance to climate change.
Mahmoud Elias Hamza, the minister of agriculture, water resources, and fisheries, and Philippe Ankers, a representative of the UN agency with headquarters in Rome in Tunisia, signed the agreements there.
According to a statement from the FAO, the projects are a part of a four-year framework for cooperation that will last until 2025.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF), in which the FAO will be a major partner, will provide funding for the initial initiative. In order to create a National Action Plan for the agricultural sector with various adaptation alternatives relating to water, land, crops, livestock, fisheries, and forestry, it will examine food security and resistance to climate change.
According to the FAO, the plan would put a special emphasis on modifying measures and defining the roles and contributions of stakeholders, including private sector partners.
“”We anticipate that in the end it will enable increased knowledge on adaptation to climate change for informed decision making; supporting the resilience of the agricultural sector through climate-smart investments and public-private partnerships; implementing social protection plans for better adaptation in the most vulnerable rural communities; and innovation through new digital technologies,” it said.
The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation is supporting the second initiative, which is titled “SocPro4Fish.”
It complements certain prior efforts made by FAO in collaboration with the Tunisian government to gather factual information on social protection in the country’s fisheries and larger aquaculture industry.
It will put a special emphasis on expanding access to social protection and build institutional capacities in Tunisia to enhance the standard of social benefits provided to fishermen and other workers in the country’s two most important economic sectors, aquaculture and fisheries.
