🔆 HAND-IN-HAND (HIH) INITIATIVE: Key Facts 📍 Context ✅ Recently, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Director-General opened the third Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum. 📍 About Hand-in-Hand Initiative : Launched in 2019, it is a flagship program of the FAO. ✅ The initiative aims to: ✅ Eradicate poverty (SDG1), ✅ End hunger and malnutrition (SDG2), ✅ Reduce inequalities (SDG10). It focuses on accelerating market-based transformation of agri-food systems to: ✅ Raise incomes, ✅ Improve nutrition, ✅ Empower vulnerable populations, ✅ Strengthen resilience to climate change. Member countries: 72 countries have joined, but India is not a member. 📍 About FAO (Food and Agricultural Organisation) 🌾 FAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN), leading global efforts to defeat hunger. 🏛 It is the oldest permanent specialized UN agency, founded in October 1945. 🌱 Mandate: ✅ Improve nutrition, ✅ Increase agricultural productivity, ✅ Raise the standard of living in rural areas, and ✅ Contribute to global economic growth. 🌍 Members: 194 Member States plus the European Union. 🇮🇳 India has been a member since 1945, with the headquarters in Rome, Italy. #security