En afdød arabisk statsleder, der ville gøre ørkenen grøn, lægger navn til centret i Rom, som hans land – De forenede Arabiske Emirater ved Den persiske Havbugt – har betalt; centret skal bl.a. udbrede viden om landbrug og fødevarer.
ROME, 24 April 2012: An international media and knowledge centre was inaugurated at FAO headquarters Tuesday by the minister for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates and FAOs Director-General.
Funded by the United Arab Emirates, the Centre is named for the oil-rich country’s founder and late president Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, who once said, “Give me agriculture and I will give you civilization” (han døde i 2004, red.).
With FAO’s support, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan helped turn large tracts of the desert green by investing in agriculture, and in particular in date palm production.
Zayed’s wife, Sheikha Fatima, has since 2010 served as an extraordinary FAO Goodwill Ambassador, helping mobilize support for international efforts to eliminate hunger.
“The Sheikh Zayed Centre represents a major step forward in our capacity to communicate, network and share knowledge. It allows us to link persons, ideas and lessons from around the world,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.
The project was initiated by former FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf in 2007. Construction began in July 2011 and was completed in December 2011.
Det nye center
The new facility covers some 260 square metres of floorspace and was designed by Italian architect Marco Felici.
The centre features a conference hall allowing for live TV transmissions and debates, a new TV studio with post-production suites and e-learning facilities. It boasts state-of-the-art broadcasting and communication technology.
The centre will equip the Organization with interactive live television transmission capacities. Videoconferencing, streaming video and digital media distribution are also available.
It will enhance (styrke) FAO’s ability to share expertise and knowledge globally on agriculture and rural development and strengthen the Organization’s outreach to government institutions, centres of excellence, universities and NGOs around the world, and facilitate e-learning.
It will allow FAO to do its job better – communicating, sharing knowledge, capacitating people in the developing and developed world and better coordinating its work with its decentralized offices.
FAO er FNs Fødevare- og Landbrugsorganisation.
De forenede Arabiske Emirater er en føderation bestående af syv emirater: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah og Umm Al Quwain. Hovedstaden er Abu Dhabi. Det grænser op til Oman, Saudi-Arabien og Qatar.
Kilde: www.fao.org
