[FAO NEWS RELEASE - www.fao.org] Contacts Irina Utkina FAO Media Relations (Rome) (+39) 06 570 52542 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Turkey contributes $20 million to support FAO’s work in Central Asia and the Caucasus Funds will help countries in the region improve food security, rural development and natural resource management 3 July 2017, Rome - 3 July 2017, Rome - Turkey has announced today a $20m donation to back FAO's work aimed at improving food security, rural development and natural resource management in Central Asia and the Caucasus. The announcement was made at a launch ceremony on the sidelines of FAO's governing Conference<http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/conference/c2017/en/>. In his opening remarks at today's ceremony, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva praised Turkey for its significant political and financial support to FAO which is seen as a model of cooperation in the region and globally. Graziano da Silva said: "We have a long-standing cooperation between FAO and Turkey and this has improved over the recent years and now with the second phase of this programme FAO will be more visible in the subregion". For his part, Faruk Çelik, Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock of Turkey, said at the ceremony: "We have now completed the first phase of FAO-Turkey partnership programme under which we have realised 28 projects in 7 countries. Under the second phase of the programme launched in Rome and also at a special event in Ankara today, we hope to further widen the scope of the programme and undertake many important initiatives". With a financial contribution of $10 million from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, Turkey has committed its support to the second phase of the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme<http://www.fao.org/europe/programmes-and-projects/fao-turkey/en/> initially launched in 2009. The second phase (2017-2020) will cover activities in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and beyond in the field of food security and nutrition, agricultural and rural development, protection and management of natural resources, agricultural policies and food safety. The Turkish Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs has committed to allocate another $10m to FAO-Turkey Forestry Programme to support sustainable management of forests and other natural resources in the region. The new tranches will bring the total country's contribution under two partnership programmes to $30 million making it one of the largest non-EU donors for FAO activities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The $10 million first phase of the programme covering the 2009-16 period has strengthened capacities of farmers, foresters, pastoralists and national authorities in the region to implement modern and sustainable agricultural practices such as conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, livestock productivity and responsible fisheries management among others. A special Photo Exhibit about the FAO-Turkey Partnership, which will be among five key exhibitions at the FAO Conference, was also inaugurated today by the Minister and FAO Assistant Director-General for Europe and Central Asia Vladimir Rakhmanin. | read this story online<http://bit.ly/1jpnaGV> | [2017 91/en] Journalists & editors: For photos, audio clips, video material & b-roll, contact: (+39) 06 570 53625 or [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>. Online tools: Photos via the FAOnews Flickr account<http://www.flickr.com/photos/faonews> FAO's online newsroom<http://www.fao.org/news/newsroom-home/en/> RSS feed<http://www.fao.org/news/rss-feed/en/> of FAO news releases Follow us on Twitter: @FAOnews<https://twitter.com/faonews/> | @grazianodasilva<https://twitter.com/grazianodasilva/> This news release was issued by the Media Office at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). To unsubscribe from this news service click the link below or send an email to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> with "signoff Media-G-Eng-L" as the only text in the message body. You can also manage your subscription online, here<https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa>. To receive news releases in plain text format rather than HTML, contact us. FAO | Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy | (+39) 06 570 53625 | www.fao.org<http://www.fao.org> ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the Media-G-Eng-L list, click the following link: &*TICKET_URL(Media-G-Eng-L,SIGNOFF);