“There can be no freedom from hunger – there can be no food security – without the active participation of all sectors of society, including the private sector,” said FAO’s Director-General, José Graziano da Silva.

Speaking at a high-level conference in Istanbul focused on promoting private agricultural investment and trade from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, Graziano da Silva said that apart from important investments, financial and in-kind contributions, the private sector can make another important valuable contribution, namely political support to food security. There can be no freedom from hunger – there can be no food security – without the active participation of all sectors of society, including the private sector.

“We need to build consensus and mobilize all stakeholders towards this goal. With the private sector on board, national and international efforts to fight hunger have added legitimacy,” he told the gathering of leaders in agribusiness and top level policy-makers.

The Director-General and his counterpart, EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti, stressed that the fight against hunger can only be won in partnership between governments, civil society and farmer organizations and the private sector. They also called on governments to create an enabling policy environment that fosters private sector investment.

Sir Suma said he was impressed by the positive response by all the companies that were invited to the conference. “It shows that the private sector is concerned about food security. This meeting is another step forward to helping the private sector to enhance production and employment, using the expertise of the EBRD and FAO in the food and agricultural sectors,” he told the conference.

The conference explored ways to improve the trade conditions between transition countries and the southern and eastern rim of the Mediterranean, according to a news release issued by FAO. It also discussed different models to develop farming and maximize the efficiency of food chains.

Since the start of their partnership in 1994, FAO and the EBRD have implemented over 90 technical assistance projects, totalling about $12 million, which have helped to address institutional and regulatory bottlenecks, as well as improve transparency and efficiency along the whole food value-chain in the countries in which EBRD operates.

“The Fund is being financed out of the Bank’s reserves and will allow the Bank to start operations as a prelude to full-scale investment in the new region after an extension of the EBRD’s geographic remit has been ratified,” it added in a statement.

After years concentrating mainly on investment partnerships with private-sector firms across the former Soviet bloc it shifts its attention to another region where people are again demanding a more stable economic future. is planning to invest specifically in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan. It has opened preliminary offices in all four of these countries, appointed a managing director for the region and hired additional staff with regional experience.

The Bank will focus on the development of the private sector in the new region, fostering growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, helping to improve municipal services, developing stable financial sectors and improving energy supplies via SEI activities.

The Bank expects to be able to eventually invest up to €2.5 billion a year in the new region, while not detracting from investments in its existing countries of operations, where funding totalled €9.1 billion in 2011.

The EBRD though stressed that it would continue to support growth in eastern Europe, which was facing a slowdown in growth because of the eurozone debt crisis.

Its Arab investment announcement came on the final day of the EBRD’s annual meeting in London and after the bank on Friday unexpectedly selected top British civil servant Suma Chakrabarti to run as its president for four years from July, according to AFP.