Bilateral meeting with the Director General of the Islamic Organization for Food Security - His Excellency Yerlan Alimzhanuly Baidaulet

Samarkand – FAO Director-General QU Dongyu and His Excellency Yerlan Alimzhanuly Baidaulet, Director-General of the Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS), met on the margins of the International Conference on Food Security (ICFS), which took place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on 7-8 September 2023.

The IOFS Director-General reiterated IOFS's commitment to addressing global hunger, especially within the member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). He also emphasized the importance of strengthening agrifood systems in landlocked countries, suggesting sustainable practices, improved infrastructure, technology access, and transportation enhancement as key strategies.

The IOFS Director-General outlined that in October 2022, during a bilateral meeting with Qu at FAO Headquarters in Rome, they identified nine countries for facilitating activities: Chad, Somalia, Gambia, Kazakhstan, Djibouti, Nigeria, Tajikistan, Mauritania, and Afghanistan. He informed the Director-General that he has already met with FAO Representatives in some of these countries to develop cooperation in the areas of food security, livestock, reducing food loss and waste, and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

The IOFS Director-General also referred to the Global Agrobiotechnology Forum to be held in Saudi Arabia later this year.

The FAO Director-General thanked the IOFS Director-General for the excellent collaboration between the two organizations and expressed his appreciation the work being carried out in support of food security and for the transformation of global agrifood systems. In this regard, he emphasized the importance of facilitating work in Afghanistan, noting that not only humanitarian support, but also efforts to provide sustainability were needed.

Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen the partnership and cooperation going forward.