Official to discuss programme

THE United Nations resident coordinator Gianluca Rampolla is visiting East Sepik and West Sepik this week to commemorate the UN’s 75th anniversary.
The three-day visit, which started yesterday, will see Rampolla discuss progress of the European Union Co-financed Streit PNG programme, implemented by the Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as a United Nations joint programme in partnership with PNG Cocoa Board and the provincial department of agriculture and livestock.
Streit PNG is the largest grant-funded programme of the European Union in the country.
The programme was developed under the umbrella of 11th European Development Fund (2014-2020).
Partners for Streit PNG programme are the International Labour Organisation (ILO), International Telecommunications Union (ITU), United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in close collaboration with the Government and local partners.
The Streit PNG programme is focusing on three value chains of cocoa, vanilla and fisheries (aquaculture, riverine and in shore/reef).
It aims to achieve an overall objective – to increase sustainable and inclusive economic development of rural areas – through a combination of integrated outcomes which includes increasing economic returns.