International Workshop on “Applications of Juncao Technology and its contribution to alleviating poverty, promoting employment and protecting the environment”
International Workshop on “Applications of Juncao Technology and its contribution to alleviating poverty, promoting employment and protecting the environment”
The international workshop took place in Nadi, Fiji is convened in the context of UNDESA’s mission to build capacities of interested Governments on the ways and means of translating policy frameworks developed in UN conferences and summits into programmes at the national level. Capacity building activities undertaken were also aimed at strengthening and maintaining the capabilities of states and societies to design and implement strategies that minimize the negative impacts of current social, economic and environmental crises and emerging challenges. As a cross-cutting entry point, capacity building activities promote the integration of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into national sustainable development planning frameworks, sharing lessons learned and good practices through workshops and related events.
The 2030 Agenda recognizes that capacity-building forms part of the means of implementation for the SDGs (paragraph 41). Each SDG contains targets relating to means of implementation, including capacity- building. Moreover, SDG 17, which covers means of implementation and the global partnership for sustainable development, contains target 17.9 which aims to: “Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the sustainable development goals, including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation”. The High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) that has the central role in overseeing follow up and review in implementing the Goals and targets at the global level has also underlined and reiterated the importance of supporting developing countries in their efforts to implement the SDGs and advance the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In that regard, UNDESA collaborated with the National Engineering Research Centre for Juncao Technology of the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU) of the People’s Republic of China, under the UN Peace and Development Trust Fund, on a project entitled “Enhancing capacity of developing countries to achieve sustainable agriculture through the transfer of Juncao technology for alleviating poverty and promoting productive employment”. This project was linked to the imperative to get back on track and accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goal, in particular goals related to the eradication of poverty, reduction of hunger, use of renewable energy, employment creation, empowerment of women and youth, protection of the environment and to climate change adaptation and mitigation.
The Juncao technology, which is being transferred to developing countries through south-south cooperation and upon request, allows farmers in developing countries to grow several types of edible and medicinal mushrooms from dried, chopped grasses, without cutting down trees and damaging the environment. Such environmental-friendly technology can help small-scale farmers and farming communities to develop a low-cost, commercial-scale mushroom cultivation industry that can boost household incomes and improve livelihoods. In addition, the technology can also be used for producing livestock feed, methane gas, minimize soil erosion and to combat desertification. Hence, the mobilization of capacity building and the transfer of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries such as the Juncao technology contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs.
