India stresses on closer Asia-Africa ties to ensure food security, climate resilience

21 – 24 February 2025. New Delhi, India. 21st African-Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO) conference +  77th Session of Executive Committee of the African-Asian Rural Development Organization

The event was attended by senior officials from AARDO member countries across Asia and Africa, along with the Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, as a key participant.

The African-Asian Rural Development Organisation (AARDO) aims  at fostering South-South Cooperation to strengthen economic and technical collaboration for rural development. AARDO works with UN agencies (FAO, IFAD, UNESCO, UNDP, ICA) for rural development projects.

Background

African-Asian Rural Development Organisation (AARDO), one of the the earliest examples of South-South and Triangular cooperation in the fields of agriculture and rural development in the African-Asian region, established in 1962, is an autonomous inter-governmental/multilateral organisation, comprising 32 country governments of Africa and Asia as full members and 3 associate members. The organization has been given the status of international organisation by the Government of India, at par with other UN organisations in India.

AARDO implements its activities at organisational and technical level. Under the organizational level, AARDO secretariat organises governing body meetings, conducts Member Relations and supervises its six Regional Offices located, 3 each in Africa and Asia. The technical activities encompass human resource development (HRD) programmes, development pilot project, technology-based transformation, collaboration with international and regional organisations and information dissemination.

The annual financial contribution by the members is the main source to run the activities of the Organization.  Besides, the member countries contribute in organising technical activities in their own countries. Important among these countries are Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Morocco, Zambia etc. The last Session was hosted by the Government of Republic of Zambia in June 2023.