FAO Director-General and CGIAR Executive Director agree to strengthen collaboration

30 October 2019, Rome – FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu met today with Elwyn Grainger-Jones, Executive Director of CGIAR, to discuss ways to work more closely together on issues of common interest.

In their talks, they discussed CGIAR’s ongoing reform to align more closely its mission and governance structure to become One CGIAR. The Director-General expressed full support for the effort, as well as for the potential opening of a CGIAR hub in Rome to facilitate closer collaboration and partnership with the Rome-based United Nations Agencies.

The parties also committed to renewing the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two Organizations, with a stronger focus on food systems, innovation, biotechnology and FAO’s new Hand-in-Hand Initiative, which prioritizes targeted work that benefits people in the world’s most vulnerable regions, as priority collaboration areas.

The FAO Director-General further welcomed CGIAR’s intent to create one integrated national/regional team and reaffirmed FAO’s support to the teams at country level. He also confirmed FAO’s participation in the upcoming ninth CGIAR System Council meeting in Chengdu, the People’s Republic of China, on 14 and 15 November 2019.