The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) and Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) signed an agreement to facilitate bilateral cooperation and support collaborative research and capacity-building initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) will facilitate productive relationships and exchanges in fields of common interest, including agriculture and rural development projects.

(L-R) CIRDAP Director General Tevita G. Boseiwaqa Taginavulau and APO Secretary-General Dr. Santhi Kanoktanaporn signing the MOU in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

The agreement, which was signed after a bilateral meeting during the 59th Workshop Meeting of Heads of National Productivity Organizations in Yogyakarta, will enable the APO to support member countries in executing capacity-building programs through CIRDAP as an implementation partner. The MOU follows joint initiatives by the two organizations under a similar agreement signed in 2016.

Sharing details of the agreement, APO Secretary-General Dr. Santhi Kanoktanaporn said, “We see value in working together and the common goal gives a strong reason for joining hands with CIRDAP. The MOU will help us optimize the resources for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the agriculture transformation, future food, and rural development programs that the APO is focusing on for more sustainable socioeconomic development across our 20 member countries.”

Highlighting the importance of the agreement, CIRDAP Director General Tevita G. Boseiwaqa Taginavulau commented that the two organizations had been collaborating over the past three years, particularly through international training programs to help countries in the Asia-Pacific region meet their SDG1 objective of ending poverty in all its forms everywhere and SDG2 to eradicate hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.

“We are proud to say that we have achieved common objectives through collaboration with the APO,” he said, adding that the partnership with the APO reaffirmed CIRDAP’s commitment to achieving SDG1 and SDG2. “We have certainly been governed by the spirit of SDG17 to strengthen the areas of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development. We anticipate, therefore, that this MOU will set the platform to explore other areas of collaboration apart from international training programs with more successes,” he stated.

The agreement was officially signed by APO Secretary-General Dr. Santhi and CIRDAP Director General Tevita. Also present on the occasion were APO Director for Agriculture Dr. Muhammad Saeed and Program Officer Dr. Shaikh Tanveer Hossain.

CIRDAP is a regional intergovernmental organization established in July 1979 with the mandate to promote regional cooperation on agrarian reform, rural development, and poverty eradication. The Dhaka, Bangladesh-based center focuses on providing technical support and promoting innovative best practices for sustainable integrated rural development.