The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture launched on Monday the “Green Cities Initiative (GCI): Flagship cities for integrated green oases and food systems”, which promotes the support urban forestry and urban greening in Jordan. This project is funded by Italy through the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS).In line with the agreement signed by the parties, FAO conducted an inception workshop to acquaint stakeholders and programme partners with the scope and outlines of the project, in addition to covering the implementation strategy and work plan. The workshop was attended by a group of selected stakeholders and government partners, according to a statement for The Jordan Times.The aim of this global project, where Jordan is partner in this initiative, is to support the urban forestry and urban greening for improved resilience, health and wellbeing of urban communities in drylands. It contributes to the FAO Green Cities Initiative (GCI) which has been identified by the FAO director-general as a priority area and is closely linked to the Better Environment strategic objective, especially on “Achieving sustainable urban food systems”, “climate change mitigating and adapted in agri-food systems” and “biodiversity and ecosystem services for food and agriculture”. The project allows FAO to coordinate efforts with partners, provide integrated technical responses and pool financial contributions. The GCI initiative works closely with FAO decentralised offices and align with FAO Country Programming Frameworks and United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework to strive for synergies and increased cooperation among the UN agencies on the ground. To ensure coherence where possible, the framework will be aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets and indicators, in particular those under SDG 11, SDG 2, SDG 6, SDG 8, SDG 12, SDG 13 and SDG 15.The project activities that will be conducted in Amman are: The rehabilitation of children parks in the municipality of Amman, Green Roof Initiatives in collaboration with local communities and schools and includes technical and capacity building for stakeholders for the promotion of urban agriculture, according to the statement.FAO representative in Jordan, Nabil Assaf, said, “This project is a continuation of our partnership with AICS where FAO has worked with the Italian government and the agency through several national and regional projects. This project will contribute to strengthen community resilience to climatic, health, food and economic crisis, as well as to reduce the impact of urbanisation on biodiversity and the surrounding natural environment. This global project will serve Chad, Jordan, Mongolia, Namibia, South Sudan and Tunisia.” (ICE AMMAN)

Fonte notizia: JORDAN TIMES