A meeting of the FAST (Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation) partnership took place at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome.

Azerbaijan was represented by Leyla Jabbarli, Deputy Chairman of the Agrarian Credit and Development Agency under the Ministry of Agriculture, Coordinator of the FAST partnership and the Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers, along with Tahmina Ibrahimova, Deputy Head of the Ministry’s International Cooperation Department.

Addressing the event, Leyla Jabbarli highlighted the importance of COP29, held in Baku last November. “We support farmers—especially women and youth—in adopting climate-resilient practices, gaining access to green finance, and formulating policies,” she said.

The Azerbaijani delegation proposed measures to improve farmers’ access to finance, strengthen the integration of international climate finance with state support, and enhance the regional impact of the Harmoniya Climate Initiative (Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers).

Experts noted that the Rome meeting provided an important platform to shape the FAST partnership’s future work, expand climate finance access, and reinforce the “COP-to-COP legacy” approach from COP29 to COP30.

Launched at COP27, the FAST partnership aims to scale up climate finance for sustainable agriculture and food systems.