Evaluation of the positioning and contributions of FAO’s programme in Cuba 2013–2018

Cuba is a mostly urban country that scores highly on human development indicators and meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Several factors, including hurricanes and drought, have limited access to high quality and safe food, however. Agricultural productivity has also been constrained by internal factors and international economic dynamics, meaning 70 percent of food products consumed are imports. FAO’s programme has fostered advances in the sustainable production of food, seeds and animal feed, as well as in climate change adaptation and the sustainable management of natural resources. It has supported the public policy process through the FAO-EU Food and Nutrition Security Impact, Resilience, Sustainability and Transformation (FIRST) programme, facilitated access for the Ministries of Agriculture and Food Industry to global environmental funds and contributed to the paradigm shift in Cuba’s agricultural model. In recent years, FAO has raised its level of dialogue with government agencies and donors, increased the diversity of actors with which it coordinates and bolstered the size of the national project bank by mobilizing external resources.