The work of the Department of Agribusiness is centred on supporting Member States with the establishment of the necessary conditions and the implementation of the legal frameworks to comply with international norms such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Global Compact for Migration, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, or under the framework of the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (IDDA III).

As a technical department, its chief focus is on the design and implementation of technical cooperation (TC) projects. It is under this dimension that it contributes to UNIDO’s normative mandate, in particular through advisory services and capacity building that support the enabling regulatory and policy environment in food safety or agro-processing.

Practical examples that show the Department’s track record in connecting UNIDO’s technical operations to its normative role include: support in the drafting of the National Entrepreneurship Strategy for the Ministry of Industry of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (in collaboration with UNCTAD); the integration of the UNIDO Entrepreneurship Curriculum Programme into the national secondary curriculum by the Republic of Cabo Verde’s Ministry of Education; and the development and harmonization of food safety regulatory measures and standards in the Arab region in partnership with the League of Arab States, the Arab Industrial DevelopmentStandardization and Mining Organization, the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, and FAO.

As a Codex Alimentarius observer, UNIDO assists its Member States to be better equipped in the international food standards and guideline-setting process and pilot international best practices. As a practicle example, UNIDO in collaboration with the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) hosted by the WTO, has created a multi-stakeholder public-private partnership to identify and discuss lessons learned and experiences on a new Codex guideline related to voluntary third-party assurance (vTPA) programmes.