Director-General shares vision and highlights the importance of transparency and collective work in address to the Joint Meeting of the FAO Programme and Finance Committees
Rome - Transparency and collective work are essential components of the global efforts to reduce hunger and transform agrifood systems, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said today to the Joint Meeting of the 134th Session of the Programme Committee and the 194th Session of the Finance Committee, two key bodies in FAO’s governance framework through which Members make recommendations on funding and priorities to the FAO Council.
“Transparency is the essence of inclusivity, and inclusivity is the foundation of collaboration and partnership,” the Director-General said, noting that this has been a trademark of his management style since taking FAO’s helm in August 2019.
“The transformation of our agrifood systems can only be achieved through our collective efforts,” he said, noting that all people live on “this small planet we share together.”
FAO has managed, both internally and externally, to improve its efficiency and effectiveness in past years marked by major disruptions including a global pandemic and numerous conflicts, both of which have triggered rising food insecurity problems.
Qu noted that he has engaged in 56 high-level events at the United Nations and Member State processes this year alone, including the extensive G20 engagements, while the number is even higher when participation by FAO’s core leaders are included. In FAO’s Core Leadership team, the Director-General is assisted by FAO’s three Deputy Director-Generals, the Chief Economist, the Chief Scientist and the Director of Cabinet.
This extraordinary effort has led to two important outcomes for FAO. First, the Organization has been active in the peace and security agenda through the UN Security Council. And second, the UN wide system is now giving great attention “to the inter-connectedness of global agrifood systems, and the importance of addressing the multiple root causes of food insecurity, and to building efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems,” Qu said.
There is more work to be done, Qu added, pointing to the first stocktaking meeting in 2023 by the FAO-hosted Food Systems Coordination Hub to help countries review progress on national implementation of pledges made at the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit. That meeting could contribute directly to making the Agrifood Systems Transformation Agenda one of the key pathways to “rescue” the Sustainable Development Goals, he said.
Testimony to global appreciation for FAO’s expertise is reflected by requests such as that of preparing, with the World Trade Organization, a paper on global fertilizer markets and policies for the G20 leaders meeting later this month in Indonesia, and the development of a mapping exercise of global responses to rising food insecurity to be undertaken together with the World Bank. FAO has also been asked by India and Japan to support their 2023 G20 and G7 presidencies, respectively.
Other emerging institutional roles for FAO in the global effort to reduce hunger are identified in the Director-General’s speech.
Moving towards impact
Despite the array of severe challenges, QU pointed to reasons for optimism, especially as government spending on agriculture is growing.
“For the first time, we are seeing an increased and strengthened political will on food security from all politicians, societies and key partners, from developed to developing countries, form rich to poor nations, at local, national, regional and global levels,” he said. “There is political momentum to do more and better.”
He also noted that the International Monetary Fund is, through its new Food Shock Window, implementing FAO’s proposal for a global Food Import Financing Facility, which he urged G20 ministers to support.
“The new FAO has continued to demonstrate how it is demand and challenge driven, and results and impact oriented,” Qu said, noting that FAO is currently focusing efforts on the “localization” of the FAO 2022-2031 Strategic Framework that Members have endorsed, as well as developing regional action plans to support implementation of the new Climate Change, and Science and Innovation strategies.
The Director-General also updated Committee members on the progress of some major FAO initiatives. FAO is now engaged in 80 cities around the world with its Green Cities Initiative, some 78 countries so far have applied to promote special agriculture products as part of the One Country One Priority Product Initiative, while the Hand-in-Hand Initiative has so far catalyzed new partnerships and increased investments amounting to $2.1 billion.
He also hailed the participation of more than 300 expert scientists in the World Food Forum hosted by FAO last month, an event that gave prominent visibility to women, youth and indigenous peoples. The Director-General also informed that the 2022 World Food Day event, celebrated on the eve of the World Food Forum, had generated a social-media reach of more than 2.6 billion accounts.