For information only - not an official document
UNIS/OUS/329
10 February 2016
Re-issued as received
VIENNA, 9 February (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) - The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MASHAV), will further advance joint activities, notably in the field of agribusiness development, especially in Africa.
A memorandum of understanding on this was today extended in Vienna by LI Yong, the Director General of UNIDO, and Ambassador Talya Lador-Fresher, Permanent Representative of Israel to UNIDO. The memorandum was initially concluded in 2012.
UNIDO and MASHAV will cooperate in providing technical assistance, capacity building, consultancy and demonstration projects to governmental entities and civil society organizations. They will jointly promote food security, agribusiness development, and women's entrepreneurship development, as well as industrial sustainability in developing countries and countries with economies in transition.
In the last few years, the two organizations have undertaken three joint regional study tours and training programmes. The programmes focusing on the empowerment of rural women were organized at two MASHAV training centres, the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center (MCTC), and the Center for International Agricultural Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (CINADCO). The courses focused on agricultural and rural development, water and energy management, entrepreneurship, marketing and rural tourism. They brought together professionals and practitioners involved in agriculture and rural development from Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, as well as from Armenia.
As a follow-up, UNIDO and MASHAV will provide support to some of the trainees that participated in the courses, upon their return to their home countries.
Experts from MASHAV have also contributed to joint activities that aim to build the capacity of public institutions, including in South Sudan.
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For further information, please contact:
Dejene
Tezera
Chief, Rural Entrepreneurship, Job Creation and Human Security Division
United Nations Industrial Development Organization
Email: d.tezera[at]unido.org
