FAO Chief Scientist Ismahane Elouafi visits Brussels

During a short one-day visit, the Chief Scientist held a roundtable on the role of science and innovation in achieving a fundamental transformation on agrifood system  and participated at the  2023 EU AgriResearch Conference, where she delivered a keynote speech.

The Roundtable was attended by representatives from academia, civil society and private sector and saw an interesting debate on a number of issues, including the low adoption of technologies in the agrifood sector and the importance of science communication.
The CS presented the upcoming launch of the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Platform, with which FAO aims to facilitate connecting producers and scientists. She stressed the importance of science-based decision making for transforming our agrifood systems to make them more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable.

The CS also participated at the 2023 EU AgriResearch Conference, upon invitation by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI), where she participated at a panel discussion titled “Research and innovation and Sustainable Development Goals: Are we on track for 2030? What’s next?”

The panel discussion was  moderated by DG AGRI Deputy Director-General Magda Kopczynska,
In her intervention, she pointed out that, despite us being halfway to the 2030 deadline, 30% of the 140 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets had shown no progress or even regressed. She added that SDG 2, which focuses on eliminating hunger worldwide, was among those lagging behind. 
Elouafi stressed the potential of science and technology to accelerate progress and urged for investments in frontier technologies, increased capacity-building in the Global South, and intentional interventions to support women, indigenous peoples, young individuals, and small-scale producers.
The video of the conference is available here.

During her visit, the FAO Chief Scientist also held a number of bilateral meetings. These included an encounter with the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA). The discussion with Chief Scientist Carlos Gonçalo das Neves and his team focused on the strong collaboration between the two sides and ways of further strengthening it. Elouafi also had a meeting with European Agroforestry Federation (EURAF) representatives. 

In her meetings, Elouafi alluded to the launch of the STI Platform, which is expected for October 2023. It will encompass an STI Explorer, STI Community of Practice Network and a Bootcamp to build the community of producers and practitioners around the Platform.  

She stressed that by taking on a leadership role in contemporary scientific debates, FAO will keep on providing clear, neutral, and science-based communication. She noted that, for instance, the FAO’s 2022 publication on gene editing and agrifood systems paved the way for informed discussions on this critical topic. 

You can read more on FAO’s work in Science, Technology and Innovation here.