Japan has been among FAO’s foremost partners since the country joined the Organization in 1951, working to build food security and promoting the sustainable use of natural resources.
The country’s financial contributions, expertise and human capital are vital to FAO’s work on a broad range of topics, including international standard-setting, climate change mitigation and adaptation, response to transboundary plant and animal pests and diseases, nutrition, Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), emergency response and resilience building.
Supporting global food governance
FAO contributes to the daily lives of people around the world by developing and promoting international standards, guidelines and codes of conduct around the production and trade of food. Japan helps to boost these efforts through its support to major covenants whose governing bodies are hosted in FAO: the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the International Plant Protection Convention, and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
Enhancing sustainable food value chains and nutrition
Japan supports FAO’s work on food systems through a wide range of activities, contributing to ensuring that development within agriculture is people-centred and leads to improved access, availability and consumption of healthy foods. Within the ASEAN region, Japan’s contribution of USD 1.3 million between 2016 and 2019, helped to develop effective and inclusive food value chains in Indonesia and the Philippines, by training actors in selected value chains on marketing, business management, and good manufacturing and agricultural practices.
Thanks to Japan’s support (USD 1.5 million between 2017 and 2021), FAO is also working to ensure that food systems are conducive to healthy diets for better nutrition, through awareness raising and capacity building initiatives. The project is collaborating with universities in Ghana, Kenya and Viet Nam to incorporate FAO capacity development resources into their existing learning programmes, ensuring the dissemination of knowledge and skills to foster continuous innovation on nutrition. Likewise, the initiative is strengthening the capacities of small and medium enterprises to adopt nutrition-sensitive practices and approaches in their business models.
