At the meeting, José Manuel García-Margallo and José Graziano da Silva reviewed cooperation between Spain and the FAO. The Minister pointed out our country's solid commitment to the objectives of combating hunger and promotion through the FAO of the need to strengthen regional and national governance with respect to food security.
Spain has maintained constant support for programmes such as the Latin America without Hunger initiative, actions by the Committee on World Food Security (a UN forum that examines and monitors policies on world food security), the Water and Food Security Project for Africa (IESA) in Niger and Mali, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture; and on nutrition as a key element of for the protection of food security. In this respect, it is worth noting that during the International Conference on Nutrition in 2014 Her Majesty Queen Letizia was named Special Ambassador of the FAO for nutrition.
The Minister stressed the complementary nature of these initiatives with respect to others carried out by the Cooperación Española (Spanish Cooperation) agency to the Director-General of the FAO, such as the Water and Sanitation Cooperation Fund (FCAS), and the Support for Inclusive Public Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa (APIA) programme and accompanying processes of democratic governance in the Arab world (MASAR).
Relations between Spain and the FAO are based on the following: a Cooperation Framework Agreement between Spain and the FAO of 27 January 2004, which seeks to boost relations between the parties as a starting point for projects, programmes and activities in the area of agriculture, fisheries and food; the Collaboration Agreement between AECID and the FAO to establish a Spain-FAO Humanitarian Assistance Fund of April 2008; and the Memorandum of Understanding between the FAO and AECID of November 2013.
Collaboration with the FAO pursues the common goal of promoting policies to fight against hunger and provide access to water. Work is also being carried out on the sustainable use of natural resources (such as in fishing and agriculture), mitigation of the impact of climate change and environmental management, as well as the mainstreaming of policies such as gender and civil society into various priority areas for action. Another relevant point in the cooperation between Spain and the FAO relates to the rehabilitation and emergency actions that are becoming increasingly important within the framework of these joint actions.
Spain's mandatory contributions to the FAO budget in 2015 and 2016 amount to 12.48 million and 12.88 million respectively. This makes it the eighth highest contributing country in terms of the regular budget. Spain also made voluntary contributions amounting to 2.12 million euros in 2015, through the budgets of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Affairs.
Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación