NITI Aayog signed Statement of Intent with UN World Food Program

In news– Recently, NITI Aayog signed a Statement of Intent with United Nations World Food Program (WFP) on 20th December 2021.

Key updates-

- The partnership focuses on mainstreaming of millets and supporting India in taking lead globally in knowledge exchange using the opportunity of 2023 as an International Year of Millets.
- It also aims at building resilient livelihoods for small-holder farmers and adaptation capacities to climate change and transforming food systems.
- The Sol focuses on strategic and technical collaboration between NITI Aayog and WFP, to strengthen the climate resilient agriculture for enhanced food and nutrition security in India

Joint development of a compendium of good practices around millets mainstreaming in priority states and development of a scaling up strategy.

To provide technical support for scaling up of millets mainstreaming through intense engagement in select states with support from state governments, IIMR & other associated institutions.
Parties will jointly organize a national consultation for line ministries of the Government of India, concerned departments of State governments, select academic institutions and organizations working in the field of millets mainstreaming.
To support leveraging India’s expertise to benefit other developing countries for millets mainstreaming by creation of knowledge management platforms and facilitation of knowledge exchange.

The outcome of this partnership will be achieved in following four phases:

Phase I: Development of a best practice compendium around millet mainstreaming and a scale-up strategy.
Phase II: Support scale-up of millet mainstreaming through knowledge sharing and intense engagement with select states.
Phase III: Leverage India’s expertise to support developing countries for millet mainstreaming.
Phase IV: Working on building capacities for climate resilient and adaptive livelihood practices.

United Nations World Food Program (WFP)-

The WFP is the food-assistance branch of the United Nations.
It is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, the largest one focused on hunger and food security, and the largest provider of school meals.
Founded in 1961, (at the behest of US President Dwight Eisenhower) after the 1960 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Conference.
It is headquartered in Rome and has offices in 80 countries.
WFP launched its first programmes in 1963 by the FAO and the UNGA on a three-year experimental basis, supporting the Nubian population in Sudan.
In 1965, the programme was extended to a continuing basis.
It is funded entirely by voluntary donations.
WFP is governed by a 36-member Executive Board.
The European Union is a permanent observer in WFP and, as a major donor, participates in the work of its executive board.
The Logistics Cluster is an Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) humanitarian coordination mechanism whose primary role is supporting emergency responses.
It works closely with its sister organizations, the FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
The largest donors are the United States government followed by the European Union.