Director-General and Swiss Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin agree to strengthen collaboration and coordination

31 October 2019, Rome - FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu met today with Swiss Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin to discuss ways to further strengthen the long-lasting partnership between Switzerland and the Organization.

The Director-General handed out the new “FAO + Switzerland, An innovative partnership for global challenges” report and applauded the important role that Switzerland is playing in inclusive multilateralism.

The Federal Councillor invited the FAO Director-General to the High Level Dialogue “Investing in Food Systems Transformation”, which will take place on 22 January 2020 during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The parties stressed the need for profound and swift transformation of food production, processing, retailing and consumption, commending the request from the Secretary-General to organize a UN Food Systems Summit in 2021.

In their talks, the parties discussed FAO and Switzerland longstanding collaboration in science-based approaches and agreed on FAO’s key role in Food System Transformation, leaving no one behind.

The Director-General and the Federal Councillor both highlighted the fact that strengthening cohesion, collaboration and coordination between Member Countries is vital to achieving common goals.