FAO Consultative workshop on Climate change – Iraq

23-24 June 2021, Najaf Governorate
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) conducted a two days consultative workshop in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Environment and other line ministries as part of the formulation process of the GCF funded project: Strengthening climate resilience of vulnerable agriculture livelihoods in Iraq’s rural communities.

Representatives from the local governments of Najaf, Karbala and Muthanna, officials from the ministries of Health and Environment, Agriculture, Water Resources, Planning, farmers associations, academia, private sector and large number of FAO experts from the HQ and the regional offices attended the event.

FAO Representative in Iraq, Dr Salah ElHajjHassan, confirmed during the workshop FAO commitments to support the rural communities and national authorities to enhance the climate resilience through the introduction of climate adaptive technologies and farming practices to increase water availability at the farm level and enhance water productivity in the governorates of Muthanna, Najaf and Karbala , he also highlighting that this process is in line with the agency new framework and to support government efforts to scale up food and water security.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health and Environment, Dr. Jassim Abdel Aziz, confirmed the Ministry support to tackle the root causes and barriers to climate change adaptation in Iraq.

Najaf Deputy Governor, Karbala Governor, and the Deputy Governor of Muthanna appreciated the initiative and confirmed the commitment of the local governments to ease the formulation and implementation of the project.
Overall, the project will contribute to strengthen climate change resilience of farming communities against climate induced water scarcity in the governorates of Najaf, Karbala and Muthanna; additionally, it will reduce climate change adaptation deficit of farming communities and increase water productivity; it will also contribute to scaling-up climate change adaptation into key national water management policy frameworks and mainstreaming it across stakeholder.