Statement of Intent "Programmatic Cooperation on Food Security and Nutrition"

The aim of the Statement of Intent, signed in June 2011, is to provide a framework for cooperation which promotes a more efficient and effective response to the food and nutrition needs of the most vulnerable populations. This includes close cooperation among the Rome-based Agencies and a distribution of tasks in line with their respective core strengths and comparative advantages. It also includes a more effective linkage between short-term humanitarian and more long-term development actions so as to strengthen the resilience of the most vulnerable and promote their food and nutrition security in a sustainable manner.

The document identifies the comparative advantage of the three Rome-based Agencies as follows:

·FAO: agricultural knowledge agency for policy development, integrated capacity building, technical cooperation, response to agricultural emergencies and support to rehabilitation/recovery, support to rural and agricultural investment, collection and dissemination of global information and for the development of and implementation for major international treaties and agreements

·WFP: emergency and transitional situations, with capacity for large-scale response, extensive field presence, logistics, telecommunications and procurement capacity, early warning, needs assessment and vulnerability analysis in support of targeted food assistance and nutrition interventions and safety nets

·IFAD: experience in financing projects and programmes that are aligned with countries' own development strategies and enable poor rural people to increase agricultural production and overcome poverty, knowledge of rural poverty and exclusive focus on poor rural people and their livelihoods

While the cooperation framework is intended to be widely implemented, a number of countries/regions were selected where particular attention is given to the manner in which the cooperation framework is implemented.These "focus countries" are: Guatemala, Mozambique, Niger, Kenya and Somalia. A first review the implementation of the Statement of Intent in these countries has taken place and examples of cooperation between the EU and the three RBAs will be presented at a side-event during the upcoming CFS (Committee on Food Security) meeting in Rome this October.