The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Resource Partners today held talks on the next phase of the Flexible Multi-Partner Mechanism (FMM), an increasingly effective facility that allows the United Nations agency to quickly direct funding where and when it's most needed.
The flexibility of the FMM is helping FAO eliminate world hunger and achieve the goals of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs). The critical importance of this flexibility was evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when FAO was able to deploy technology to replace physical meetings and quickly allocate resources to the most critical areas.
The facility comes on top of FAO's traditional funding and has tripled in magnitude since it was established in 2010, helping hundreds of thousands of people in over 70 countries across five regions along the way. To date it has received more than $135 million in voluntary contributions, with over $65 million allocated for the 2018-2021 phase (approximately $20 million in 2020 alone). Funding for the 2022-2025 phase is expected to reach $100 million.
The FMM's Resource Partners are Australia, Belgium, France, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. New Zealand and Australia are the latest countries to have joined.
"The continued increase in number of Resource Partners is evidence of a growing, dynamic and effective Funding Mechanism that can deliver results," FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said in his opening remarks to the Annual Resource Partners Strategic Dialogue in Rome.
Delivering results
Earlier this month, the FMM held its first Digital Field Trip to allow Resource Partners to witness virtually the impact of their investments in Niger, Kenya, Tanzania and Guyana.
The visit focused on three FMM programmes currently underway:
- Gender equality and women's empowerment in food and agriculture
- Phase II of the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), which aims to strengthen the organisations of forest and farm producers in Africa
- Nutrition sensitive agriculture and social protection
During the Strategic Dialogue, Beth Bechdol, FAO's Deputy Director-General, expressed her appreciation for the generosity of FMM Resource Partners and for the work that has been accomplished over the past decade.
"The FMM is strategically positioned to support underfunded, critical and emerging priorities - and we can build on these successes to scale up its impact," Bechdol said.
