Rome is a growing hub for organizations working on international development issues. Increasingly, the city has also become a hub for agricultural and biotech research, and the three United Nations food and agriculture agencies are all headquartered there: The Food and Agriculture Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and World Food Programme.
There are also a number of other organizations focused on agricultural research and development based in Rome. In 2016, €21 million ($24.7 million) was granted by the Italian government to fund sustainable biotechnology and research. And recently this year, Rome hosted the sixth International Conference on Sustainable Development, organized by the European Centre of Sustainable Development to discuss economic, environmental, and sociocultural sustainability.
The city also holds support office operations for multiple other branches of the U.N. and other global development actors, such as the Society for International Development. Additionally, the Sapienza University of Rome offers a master’s program in development and international cooperation, which looks at understanding, assessing, and managing the social, political, and economic contexts of developing countries and international cooperation programs.