Tashkent – The Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) QU Dongyu highlighted the large untapped potential of Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) that needs to be harnessed to ensure an effective transformation of agrifood systems in these countries. He spoke on Thursday at the LLDC Forum on Food Security and the Sustainable Development Goals (5-6 September) in Tashkent jointly organized by FAO and the Government of Uzbekistan.

In his opening remarks, Qu pointed out that the unique geographical characteristics of LLDCs lacking direct sea access often leads to higher costs of infrastructure, logistics and transportation, which hinders their full integration into global markets. At the same time, the impacts of the climate crisis are further aggravating the situation in these countries, resulting in water scarcity, land degradation, and biodiversity loss, among others, jeopardizing food security and nutrition.

To overcome these complex challenges and unlock the full potential of LLDCs, the Director-General reassured that FAO would continue to provide these countries with at-scale technical and policy support focusing on four priority areas:

• measuring food losses at the farm level on value chains such as beans, maize, potatoes sorghum and teff; maize, potatoes sorghum and teff;  
• providing up-to-date information and analysis across the food supply chain for data-driven decisions, and calculating price anomalies for specific food commodity series over time;
• supporting the UN Common Country Analysis through FAO’s knowledge and technical expertise to include the agrifood systems transformation perspective into country-level processes; and
• promoting youth-led World Food Forum National Chapters to mobilize youth-led local action to support agrifood systems transformation – out of the current 14 chapters empowering youth and women for sustainable development, five are based in LLDCs.

Other high-level participants today included Abdulla Aripov, Prime Minister of Uzbekistan; Ibrokhim Abdurakhmanov, Minister for Agriculture of Uzbekistan; Rabab Fatima, Under Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States; Janusz Wojciechowski, European Union (EU) Commissioner for Agriculture; and Alvaro Lario, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

The Forum seeks to support international institutions to share experiences, discuss common challenges emphasizing climate change, and explore collaborative solutions and partnerships. It consists of multiple working modalities designed to foster collaboration and real progress in the development of sustainable agrifood systems in LLDCs.

FAO’s support to LLDCs

Since taking office in 2019, Qu immediately established a dedicated FAO Office of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and LLDCs, to leverage the knowledge and technical expertise of the Organization to support these most vulnerable countries.

Furthermore, the FAO flagship, country-owned and country-led, Hand-in-Hand Initiative was also launched to provide the technical, policy and investment support needed to eradicate hunger and poverty, and to reduce inequalities. There are currently 72 countries participating in the Initiative, with one-third of them being LLDCs.

The FAO Digital Villages Initiative was also launched to support developing countries, including LLDCs, in attempt to leverage digital innovation to increase agricultural production and, in turn, improve livelihoods and contribute to more inclusive societies. Eight LLDC countries, including Uzbekistan, are already part of the initiative.

In addition, the FAO’s One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) Initiative is assisting countries to boost their production and optimize the use of local natural resources to achieve food security and improved nutrition by promoting Special Agricultural Products across different agro-ecological regions. Currently, 22 LLDCs globally are promoting country specific products through the OCOP initiative.

FAO is also leveraging its convening power to provide relevant platforms for dialogue among countries facing similar challenges. For instance, each of the FAO Regional Ministerial Conferences convened earlier this year held a session on SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs to discuss regional specific priorities, and to strengthen their engagement through the informal Ministerial network.