Director-General celebrates the “big FAO family” in first virtual town hall meeting with FAO staff around the world

4 June 2020, Rome –The FAO Director-General QU Dongyu today held the second virtual town hall meeting with FAO personnel. This time Qu interacted with FAO employees that work in decentralized offices around the world, following the first meeting in April that was dedicated to staff based at FAO headquarters in Rome.

A record-breaking 3400 employees joined today’s meeting to hear the Director-General and senior management talk about the work of the Organization amid the COVID-19 pandemic and to participate at an open dialogue with colleagues working at FAO offices all across the globe.

From the offset, the Director-General and senior management congratulated FAO personnel in the field for continuing to deliver even in the most trying circumstances. Qu shared his appreciation for staff who have been “strengthening each other, inspiring each other and standing together.” He also encouraged everyone to “build one big FAO family.”

The Director-General stressed how he was “particularly proud to see that productivity went up in these past months, despite the difficult circumstances”, noting that FAO’s good work in response to the pandemic has been recognised by Members and partners. 

He highlighted that FAO has adapted very well to the new realities - the Organization is now more digital than ever before, with an average of 1500 online meetings taking place every single day. He pointed out that FAO was one of the first among the UN agencies to hold a worldwide virtual meeting with interpretation in six UN languages – back in the first week of April at a meeting with the African Union.

The Director-General also praised the “tremendous positive momentum”, generated by initiatives like the FAO Women’s Committee and Youth Committee, in addition to all the other online activities to unite and motivate staff, and declared that in the new spirit of FAO “the heart should be young, modern, and dynamic.”

Furthermore, Qu called for stronger collaboration and joint work within FAO: “We cannot afford to work in silos anymore. We must deliver better, work smarter and show our output”, before sharing his vision of an agile FAO that is based on a modern “modular management” as opposed to a pyramid structure.

“The role of FAO is even more important now and in the post-COVID-19 era” he concluded, alluding to the necessity to support Members in protecting food systems and ensuring that the health crisis does not become a food crisis.

The virtual town hall also included a question and answer session and statements from the staff representative bodies, which conveyed appreciation for the positive and constructive dialogue with FAO’s management during this period, and for the fact that staff wellbeing and safety has remained management’s  primary concern.