Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialized agency of the United Nations dealing with food security and agricultural development worldwide. The FAO was established on 16 October 1945 in Quebec City to provide long-term solutions in eradicating hunger and poverty. 

Today the agency consists of 194 member states, including the Republic of Belarus. The FAO is a United Nations specialized agency aimed at the implementation of decisions of the world community in food, agricultural and agro-industrial areas, including recommendations concerning sustainable development, environmental protection and the development of the world commerce. The FAO gathers, analyzes, interprets and disseminates information on food and agricultural issues. The agency also renders technical assistance to the FAO member states. 

In November 2005, the Republic of Belarus became a member state of the  FAO.

Within the FAO, Belarus actively participates in decision-making on relevant international agricultural and food issues and improving efficiency of the FAO. Our country has gained access to the FAO information on the latest innovations in agriculture. The Belarus Agricultural Library is a deposit library of FAO documents.

The national interests of the Republic of Belarus are advocated on FAO forums and meetings. FAO facilities are widely used to demonstrate the potential of Belarus in agricultural, forestry and environment sectors as well as to promote a positive image of our country worldwide.

The adoption of Russian as an official language of the FAO activated the dialogue and provided access for Belarusian experts to the FAO publications.

There is the FAO National Correspondent, the National FAO Coordinators in Belarus on gender issues, management of animal and plant genetic resources, the FAO Depository Library in Belarus, FAO projects "AgroWeb Belarus", “AGRIS Belarus”, “Agricultural Marketing Network”, “AGLINET”.

In May 2013, Belarus and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations signed the Agreement on FAO technical assistance.

Moreover during the visit of the Deputy Director-General of FAO – Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia Mr. V.Rakhmanin to the Republic of Belarus on September 23, 2014 the first Country Programming Framework for Belarus was signed.

In September 2017 the second Country Programming Framework for 2017-2020 was signed in Minsk. The program includes the implementation of FAO technical assistance projects for Belarus.

The following priority areas of technical assistance and outcome for a 4-year period have been agreed:

— development of agri-food production chains and access to the international markets.

— sustainable use of natural resources, including forestry, adaptation and climate change.

— sustainable agriculture and rural areas development.

The Republic of Belarus joined to the International Convention on Plants Protection (FAO is its depository). The aim of the Convention is to provide the coordination between the member-states in the fito-sanitary area, to develop the agricultural and pest control cooperation, to harmonize national regulation in the plant protection field.

Belarus also joined to the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which was created by the FAO and World Health Organization (WHO) in 1963 in order to develop the international quality standards for the different types of agricultural products. 

On November 12, 2013 the Memorandum of understanding between the Eurasian Economic Commission and FAO was signed, and then updated in August 2019.