FAO and European Commission: tackling COVID-19 together

Tackling both immediate and future needs is the key to truly sustainable development, even amid emergency situations like the COVID-19 pandemic. FAO’s Deputy Director-General (Programmes) Beth Bechdol, met with Marjeta Jager, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), and other DG DEVCO representatives, including Carla Montesi, Director for Planet and Prosperity, Leonard Mizzi, Head of Unit for Rural Development, Food Security and Nutrition and Deputy Head of Unit, Wim Olthof, and Renate Halen, Deputy Permanent Representative of the EU to the Rome-based Agencies. The meeting was an opportunity to discuss the key challenges posed by COVID-19 to food and agriculture, the FAO-DEVCO longstanding partnership, and possible areas for further engagement.

Both officials agreed on the importance of the humanitarian-development- peace nexus approach, today more than ever, to combat the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. They concurred on the need to actively engage with the private sector to transform and sustain global food systems, particularly in Africa, which is facing both the COVID-19 pandemic and a desert locust infestation. Ms Bechdol also emphasized that a comprehensive medium- and long-term pandemic Recovery Action Plan investing in people and the planet is needed. The plan would need to tap into social protection, food systems, sustainable production, employment and biodiversity protection, to ensure that no one is left behind.

DG DEVCO and FAO will continue to strengthen their collaboration, finding synergies in the COVID-19 pandemic’s global response, while at the same time sustaining joint efforts in the promotion of sustainable development and the green economy throughout the world.