On July 19, MASHAV and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United nations signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in Eastern Africa, to promote strong technical collaboration as well as the development of capacity building strategies that will benefit government services, the civil society and the private sector in Eastern Africa.

The MOU was signed following an overall agreement on cooperation signed on November 2008 in Roma, FAO headquarters with the aim to assist developing countries to achieve the Millenium development goals (UN MDGs).

“The planet never needed more than now world forestry management

Buenos Aires, Argentina - “We should not exclude any potential means of mitigating climate change¨ said Jan Heino, Assistant Director General of the Forestry Department at FAO, just as the World Forestry Congress drew to a close on Friday 23 October. In as little as five days, a major exercise of discussion, partnership and knowledge sharing occurred, seeing the involvement of the private sector as well as of civil society, the academia, NGOs and international organizations. With an initial expected number of 4 000 participants rising up to over 7 000, the meeting in Buenos Aires was evidence of the momentum generated by this crucial juncture.

Economic crisis is devastating for the world's hungry- 1.02 billion hungry people in 2009 - FAO hunger report published

An article from FAO Media Center, again, on the issue of the international crisis and its heavy consequences on developing countries. Have a look at the video- a very interesting analysis from David Dowe, presenting the new hunger report.

"The combination of food and economic crises has pushed the number of hungry people worldwide to historic levels — more than one billion people are undernourished, according to FAO estimates.Nearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries. In Asia and the Pacific, an estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic hunger; in Sub-Saharan Africa 265 million; in Latin America and the Caribbean 53 million; in the Near East and North Africa 42 million; and in developed countries 15 million, according FAO's annual hunger report, The State of Food Insecurity, produced this year in collaboration with WFP. The report was published before World Food Day, to be celebrated on 16 October 2009."