FAO Advisory Group kicks off with a meeting in Rome

27 February 2020, Rome – The FAO Advisory Group this week held its first meeting at FAO headquarters in Rome. The Group was initiated and established by FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, with a view to create an open, creative and forward-looking FAO. A wide array of partners across public and private sectors, academia, civil society and NGOs joining the Group on a voluntary basis will advise the FAO management on priorities and strategies to improve the UN Agency’s performance at all levels.

In his opening remarks, the Director-General warmly welcomed the participants and expressed appreciation for their valuable expertise and ideas to support FAO in further strengthening its activities to assist countries in unlocking the potential of their agriculture and food systems and build a more prosperous world for all.

Addressing the participants, Qu outlined his vision to work for better production, better sustainability, better nutrition and better livelihoods together with all partners through the Hand-in-Hand Initiative and other innovative business-models. We need to be more transparent and open to innovative approaches to create more powerful, science-based and tangible solutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, he said.

During the meeting, the Director-General also briefed the participants on the new Office for Innovation to stimulate innovative ideas across the Organization and strengthen the capacity of FAO's core technical departments.

The discussion focused on FAO’s new strategy, the Hand-in-Hand Initiative and various types of matchmaking it entails, as well as food systems transformation and innovation.

The Group will convene once a year in addition to bilateraI meetings at FAO headquarters or through telecommunications. The duration of the Advisory Group will be four years.

At present, the Group members include:  

Khalid BOMBA, CEO, Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency

Mushtaque CHOWDHURY, Vice-Chairperson, BRAC

Louise O. FRESCO, President, Wageningen University & Research Executive Board

Masa IWANAGA, President and CEO, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Science (JIRCAS)

Inga Rhonda KING, 74th President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

Sergey LEVIN, Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, Russia

Mauricio Antonio LOPES, President, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuària, Embrata, Brazil

Gérardine MUKESHIMANA, Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Rwanda

Luis PLANAS PUCHADES, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Spain

Joachim VON BRAUN, Director of Center for Development Research, ZEF, University of Bonn

Rob BERTRAM, Chief Scientist Bureau of Food Security and Nutrition, USAID

Rachel KYTE, Chief Executive, United Nations Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for all