UN-collaborated projects to ensure food security in UAE

dubai — The UAE Food Security Office will collaborate with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in two projects aimed at strengthening food security in the UAE.

The partnership has two main objectives: Ensuring that everyone has access to safe, sufficient and nutritious food at all times, especially during crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, and enabling the local and federal governments to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably SDG 2 — Zero Hunger.

The project titled ‘Assessment and strategic analysis of the food control system’ brings the FAO’s technical assistance on assessing and improving the UAE food safety control system, in particular of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The project is expected to outline a roadmap for government investments to ensure maintenance and improvements to the food systems over time. With an estimated cost of around $218,000 (Dh800,714), this initiative is expected to run over 12 months and bring about major improvements.

The second project titled ‘Transforming the food and agriculture sector to achieve the SDGs for enhanced food security and nutrition,’ is expected to run over two years and eight months and is estimated to cost around $3.6 million (Dh13.6 million). This project will contribute to FAO goals, including contributing to the eradication of hunger, making agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable, reducing rural poverty, enabling more efficient agricultural and food systems and increasing the resilience of livelihoods to threats and crises.

“The two projects that the Food Security Office has signed with the FAO represent an important step forward in boosting food security for the region and enhancing the UAE’s capacity to meet the UN SDGs. Although as a nation we are currently considered food secure due to our strong political and economic stance, the current Covid-19 pandemic has reiterated the need for us to augment our capacity in the areas of food production so that we can reduce our reliance on these food supply chains, which currently bring in 90 per cent of the country’s total food imports,” said Mariam Almheiri, Minister of State for Food Security.

“Through these projects, the FAO will be playing an instrumental role in helping the UAE meet its target of becoming one of the top 10 food-secure countries in the world by 2021 and number one by 2051,” she added.