Fighting hunger and malnutrition together – the Bilateral Trust Fund with the FAO

Source: © Jörg Volkmann - Fotolia.com

In addition to the annual financial contributions to the FAO, this Bilateral Trust Fund represents a voluntary commitment and a contribution of the Federal Republic of Germany towards the implementation of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

With an annual budget of € 8.3 million, the Bilateral Trust Fund has provided more than € 92 million for a total of 70 projects, mainly in Afghanistan and Africa (Sierra Leone, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and in the Congo Basin), since 2002.

Promoting food security and agriculture in rural areas

In order to leverage its financial means, the Fund has set thematic and regional priorities. The main emphasis of the Fund is on the promotion of food security and agriculture in rural areas. The projects are aimed at supporting the subject of "food security" at strategic level both in the FAO and in the partner countries.

The projects are planned together with the FAO and structured in accordance with the Federal Government’s development policy guidelines, based on the Federal Government’s support framework.

The planning and implementation in a partner country are carried out in a joint process with the respective government and the target groups. The projects are developed with due regard to the social, ecological and economic sustainability objectives.

The current projects focus on the following areas:

• Voluntary Guidelines of the FAO on the Right to Food
• Strategies for sustainable food security and rural development
• New challenges: bioenergy and food security
• Fight against hunger and malnutrition

The aim is to create good examples of stable food supplies through concrete projects in developing countries, thus strengthening small-scale farming structures and increasing agricultural productivity.

Examples of projects:

• Promoting food security and improving households’ livelihoods in Afghanistan: This project is aimed at improving the basis of Afghan households’ livelihoods and thus at contributing to food security in this country. To this end, the project is designed to enable the Afghan government, institutions and non-governmental organisations to successfully implement community-based programmes that are aimed at ensuring food security and improving the basis of households’ livelihoods. This includes direct and indirect support, for instance with regard to developing concepts and teaching material, training measures and selected pilot projects (e.g. aimed at the processing of agricultural products or the creation of school gardens). A follow-up project supports the establishment of an agricultural advisory service for women via programmes e.g. on the processing and marketing of food products and the tapping of other income opportunities.
• Bioenergy and food security: What is the impact of the cultivation of bioenergy crops on food security in developing countries? Is it always a matter of deciding between "food" and "fuel"? What strategies can a country pursue to ensure food security and at the same time use the bioenergy potential for its benefit? This project developed an analytical framework to give country-specific answers to these questions and provide the governments with guidance as to how bioenergy production can be made socially and environmentally compatible.
• Conservation Agriculture as an approach to sustainable agriculture and rural development: Increasing nutrient depletion of the soil due to decreasing rainfall is the major challenge to food production in Africa. Conservation Agriculture, developed in Brazil, is a promising method in this respect. It is labour-extensive and soil-preserving and, in addition, allows higher yields. Conservation Agriculture is based on the principles of minimum disruption to the soil structure, a permanent plant cover, and crop rotation or mixed crops adapted to the specific soil situation. This project adapted the method to African conditions, and the success achieved in the pilot countries of Kenya and Tanzania demonstrates that it is possible to successfully implement this cultivation method in Africa.