FAO Director-General meets Alok Sharma, Secretary of State for International Development of the United Kingdom

FAO Director-General Qy Dongyu today met the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for International Development, Alok Sharma, who welcomed the beginning of a new chapter in his country’s long-term partnership with FAO.

Sharma reaffirmed his country’s commitment to work closely with FAO to eradicate poverty, hunger and malnutrition around the world.

“We talked about the shared work we are doing from the UK with the FAO. We discussed issues around Codex, nutrition and AMR.  These are the type of challenges we need to work on together in order to eradicate extreme poverty” said Sharma, speaking after the meeting.

Looking forward to further strengthening the partnership with the United Kingdom in the areas of common priorities,  Qu insisted on the need to scale up the Codex Commission and promote digital farming.

The FAO Director General acknowledged the leading role of the United Kingdom in the work against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) both at global and country levels.

The UK is the fourth largest FAO resource partner and The Department for International Development (DFID) has traditionally provided substantial extra budgetary support to FAO’s activities in livestock and fisheries development, including major sustainable livelihood initiatives.