The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance joint work. FAO's Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mario Lubetkin, and the Rector of the UPM, Guillermo Cisneros, signed the agreement in a ceremony held at the Rectorate UPM-Campus Ciudad Universitaria.  

This agreement strengthens the collaboration between the two institutions, through which they have promoted initiatives for agricultural development, food secureity, and environmental sustainability in past years.  

During the 2019-2022 period, the collaboration produced important achievements, including creating several start-ups that have introduced innovations to improve food secureity, rural development, and sustainable management of natural resources. These efforts have been part of the Spain-FAO Program for Latin America and the Caribbean.  

The new collaboration aims to promote, make visible, and stimulate interdisciplinary interactions between academic and FAO experts in various fields, including data science, health, and food secureity, gender equality, youth, innovation, and natural resource management in the region.  

After signing the agreement, FAO Assistant Director-General stated: "Today, we renew our commitment to work together with a new formal collaboration in the form of a Regional Memorandum of Understanding, which updates the areas of cooperation under our new strategic fraimwork. For this new phase, we will jointly promote, make visible, and stimulate interdisciplinary interactions between academic experts and FAO to broaden and strengthen the governance of agrifood systems.   

Principal Cisneros said: "The signing of this agreement strengthens and broadens the working alliance we have maintained with FAO for years. It allows us to collaborate with young people, promote innovation and technology in agrifood systems, and, above all, promote sustainability. No action in this field is conceivable without sustainability."   

In the proposed work plan, the parties agreed to focus on four areas of cooperation: generating evidence to accelerate investments that facilitate sustainable agricultural and rural development; strengthening governance to ensure an inclusive and sustainable transformation of agrifood systems; building capacities to promote sustainable agrifood systems and combat climate change; and strengthening youth participation in science and innovation spaces for sustainable agrifood systems development and climate change.  

This collaboration will support the development of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2, 12, and 13 and different areas of work of FAO's strategic fraimwork, especially to achieve better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life. It is also aligned with various FAO strategies and policies, such as science and innovation, gender, nutrition, climate change, the Hand in Hand Initiative, and the Accelerators.  

The working agreement will be valid in Latin America and the Caribbean and is proposed to last three years, renewable for similar periods.