FAO Deputy Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia concludes virtual mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina

Within the framework of the virtual mission Mr. Gangi had high-level meetings with FAO’s partners in the country, including the representatives of the authorities. During the meeting with the BiH Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, Mr. Staša Košarac, Mr. Gangi presented FAO’s new key priorities in the region:

• sustainable food systems,
• family farms,
• youth as key agents of change, and
• climate change.

FAO’s commitment to support country’s agricultural tourism, and women and youth-led rural development was further reinforced during Mr. Gangi’s meeting with the Republika Srpska Entity Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Mr.Boris Pasalic. Mr. Gangi discussed the alignments with the development cooperation priorities in the context of COVID-19 response and post-COVID-19 green economic recovery with international development partners, including European Union Delegation to BiH, World Bank in BiH, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).

FAO in Bosnia and Herzegovina fully endorses the UN system’s approach to development cooperation, based on the “Delivering as one” principle. Hence, during the virtual mission Mr. Gangi discussed the topic of enhanced interagency cooperation in the inclusive agriculture and green rural development fields with the UN sister agencies – UNDP, IFAD and UN Women.

Mr. Gangi also delivered a welcoming speech at the “Inception workshop on preparation of Baseline Assessment for Potato Value Chain” which was organized by FAO Office in BiH on 28th January, bringing together representatives from BiH Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations,, RS Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Food Safety Agency, Federal Agro-Mediterranean Institute, associations of agricultural producers, cooperatives and private sector producers. Inter alia, the workshop participants participated in the facilitated focus group discussion with the use of the GlobalGap surveying methodology. The insights from the focus group discussion and the workshop will be included in the final potato value chain report which will be produced by FAO experts.