[FAO NEWS RELEASE - www.fao.org] Contacts Peter Mayer FAO Communications (in New York for UNGA) +1 (212) 963 6036 (NY office) +39 347 1069069 (Italian cell) [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Ahdi Mohammed FAO Communications (in New York for UNGA) +1 (571) 278 9814 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> FAO Media Relations Office (Rome) (+39) 06 570 53625 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> New FAO Hand-in-Hand Initiative to maximize partnerships for greater impacts FAO urges Member States’ support to accelerate hunger- and poverty-fighting efforts 26 September 2019, New York – Having Member States’ support and buy-in is paramount to FAO successfully rolling out new initiatives, such as the new Hand-in-Hand Initiative, to help accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals - especially ending poverty and hunger - and not leaving anyone behind. This was FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu’s message to the UN agency’s Member States at an event on the margins of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday aimed at enabling discussions to shape a new vision for a more dynamic and innovative FAO, and strengthening North-South partnerships. The Hand-in-Hand Initiative, presented at the event, aims to enable “matchmaking” – bringing countries with the highest poverty and hunger rates together with developed countries – to support development efforts in the Least Developed Landlocked Countries, Least Developed Small Island Developing States, and countries affected by food crises. Looking ahead, the initiative will then seek to support highly-populated, less developed countries. This will be done in close coordination and partnership with multilateral development banks and other UN agencies, with FAO identifying opportunities at national level for all priority countries, as well as bottlenecks and investment gaps, and developing a detailed monitoring and evaluation framework with clear targets for 2030. Qu Dongyu reiterated that the new measures also aim to strengthen a digital, integrated and cooperative FAO that is worthy of Member States’ trust, and highlighted his approach geared towards partnerships, transparency and an open-door policy. “Let us forge a true partnership, built on mutual respect and trust, and strengthened by our joint goal of reaching the SDGs and creating a world free of hunger,” he said. | read this story online<http://www.fao.org/news/archive/news-by-date/2019/en/> | [2019/136en] Journalists & editors: For video, photos, audio clips contact: (+39) 06 570 53625 or [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>. Online tools: Footage download via FAO Media Vault<http://tv.fao.org/> 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/> 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-Permrepeng-L list, click the following link: &*TICKET_URL(Media-G-Permrepeng-L,SIGNOFF);