The European Union–FAO partnership is strong and growing, as evidenced by the upward trend of the European Union’s voluntary contributions in recent years. This has enabled FAO to work extensively across the globe and in those regions where assistance is most needed.

The latest FAO + European Union Partnership Report provides highlights on the cooperation during the 2018-2020 period, detailing the progress achieved in areas such as resilience and food crises; climate change and natural resource management; agricultural investments and value chains; and nutrition and food systems.

The European Union is a solid and leading resource partner for FAO. In the last three years, it contributed approximately USD 635 million to more than 250 projects around the world, supporting the Organization in providing policy guidance and technical advice, and in implementing programmes and projects in line with the Paris Agreement on climate action and the globally endorsed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Most of these contributions were directed towards increasing the resilience of livelihoods to threats and crises (49 percent), followed by initiatives to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable (25 percent) and to enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems (18 percent). Moreover, the majority of EU-funded projects supported vulnerable populations in Africa (32 percent), across the world through interregional projects (32 percent) and in Asia and the Pacific (13 percent).

The European Union’s ongoing support for multilateralism and the UN system are as essential to achieving the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development as they are to addressing the immense challenges that biodiversity loss, climate change, forced migration, protracted conflict and crises and transboundary pests and diseases continue to pose today. The European Union’s continued support will remain vital to step up efforts to support the fight against hunger in times of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, while realizing the SDGs.