Heads of FAO and the UN Office in Geneva aim to further strengthen cooperation and synergy

8 October 2019, Geneva - FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu and his counterpart from the United Nations Office in Geneva (UNOG), Tatiana Valovaya, agreed during talks today on a closer collaboration between the two Organizations.

The UNOG Director-General congratulated the FAO Director-General for his recent election and stated that she was looking forward to working with him.

The two principals discussed a number of issues of common interest, including the effect of climate change on agriculture and the need for collective action on food systems. They agreed that no effort should be spared in order to strengthen cooperation and synergy within the UN family, given the need to speed up SDG achievement, along the lines of “the Strong calling” by UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Qu underscored that action on food and agriculture also included rural development and stressed the importance of making Permanent Missions in Geneva aware of this.

He expressed his interest to contribute at annual events that would update UNOG Membership in a comprehensive manner on FAO activities, in particular those with a relevance to the work of UN Agencies in Geneva.

The UNOG Director-General pointed to the Building Bridges Week, where best local practices related to achieving the SDGs are presented. She invited FAO to participate in this event by presenting best practices related to food waste, for example.

The FAO Director-General presented the Organization’s new Hand-in-Hand Initiative and underscored the important role played by cooperation among international organizations within the initiative.