FAO Brussels Director meets OACPS Secretary-General to discuss bilateral cooperation

FAO Brussels Director Raschad Al-Khafaji paid a courtesy visit to the Secretary-General of the Organization for Africa, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), Ambassador Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti, during which the fruitful cooperation between the organizations was reviewed and discussed.

Accompanied by the Assistant Secretary-General for Environment and Climate Action Cristelle Pratt and the Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Transformation and Trade Escipión Oliveira, Ambassador Chikoti thanked FAO for its continuous support and engagements with his organization, highlighting, in particular, the technical support provided recently on developing the OACPS food systems transformation mechanism as well as collaboration within the framework of the seventh OACPS Ministerial Meeting of Fisheries, held last April in Accra, Ghana.

FAO’s active role within the preparatory work for the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), and particularly FAO's contribution to the related OACPS Intergovernmental Dialogue in July 2021, was also acknowledged.

The new partnership arrangement between FAO and OACPS was one of the issues addressed at the meeting, with the two parties agreeing on the need to continue strengthening the cooperation between the two organizations.

During the meeting, the OACPS Secretary-General expressed his concern at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine on global food security and nutrition in OACPS Member States, many of which are Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries or Small Island Developing States. Al-Khafaji alluded to the ongoing efforts of FAO in Ukraine and the organizations concentrated efforts at a global level, in providing data and analysis on the impacts of the war.

You can read more about FAO’s partnership with the OACPS here.