The Project – Roma Tre University and FAO, an alliance to combat hunger in the world

Roma Tre University and FAO have strengthened their cooperation on the issue of food security, nutrition and sustainable development. The agreement provides for the creation of new training modules, the exchange of teaching material and internships for students. “This agreement is a first but important step on the road of further structured forms of cooperation between Italian universities and the FAO, in order to work together on the new international development agenda,” said Ambassador Pierfrancesco Sacco, Italy’s permanent representatives to the UN agencies based in Rome. Roma Tre University’s two post-graduate English-language programmes, “Human Development and Food Security” and “Cooperatives: Economics, Law and Management”, will include specific teaching modules on topics like family farms, nutrition, microcredit, cooperative, gender-linked issues, responsible investments in agriculture, statistic surveys and guidelines for the voluntary responsible use of land, fish and forest resources. On its part, FAO will support the project by providing teaching material, access to online training courses, technical support by its expects and the possibility of internships within the Organisation. Rector Mario Panizza expressed his conviction: “Universities must be the driver of sustainable development and progress. This partnership will contribute to forming a new generation of informed and educated students and citizens ready to tackle the challenge of sustainable development and hunger in the world, which is now especially generated by an unbalance in the resource distribution chain.” The new partnership will enable students to come into contact and get acquainted with the founding elements of FAO’s mandate in favour of a world free of hunger and of sustainable development, while simultaneously improving their technical and professional skills. “This renewed cooperation adds value to the work of FAO and of the Roma Tre University, by leveraging FAO’s long-standing experience on the field and also in training courses. This will help form the future experts and policy-makers graduating from Roma Tre University,” said Daniel Gustafson, the Deputy Director-General of FAO, at the signing ceremony.