ECO Secretary General, H.E. Mr. Khusrav Noziri addressed the 36th FAO Ministerial Meeting of the Near East Regional Conference (NERC-36) virtually. FAO Ministerial Meeting is a two days Meeting of 7-8 February 2022 being held in hybrid mode in Baghdad, Iraq.
The Secretary General of ECO while presenting a statement in this Ministerial Meeting, emphasized on the compelling need for improvement of Food Security and human health, which has been adversely affected by COVID-19 pandemic. Ambassador Noziri declared that the economic consequences of the pandemic on food security have affected developing countries more severely. Restrictions on movement within and across countries have disrupted entire food supply chains and affected the availability of food.
ECO Secretary General added that the Organization is committed to the Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger, the accomplishment of which will lead to greater food security, health and welfare. In this regard, ECO Secretariat in cooperation with ECO Regional Coordination Center for Food Security (ECO-RCC) and FAO have updated the ECO Regional Program for Food Security (ECO-RPFS) according to the pandemic situation and will accordingly make its utmost to facilitate moving towards the implementation stage aimed at improving and enhancing ECO Member States resilience to future shocks.
In conclusion, Ambassador Noziri invited countries, international and regional organizations to work together to strengthen cooperation during this pandemic. He stressed on the role of collective action as an imperative need for ensuring that the pandemic will not threaten food security and nutrition more, and as a prerequisite to improve resilience to shocks in all regions of the world.
The Senior Officers Meeting (SOM) for the 36th Session of the FAO Regional Conference for the Near East (NERC-36) was held virtually from 10-13 January 2022 with participation of ECO Secretariat.
