Read-out of bilateral meeting between FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, and Usha Rao-Monari, Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

9 September 2021 - The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, and Usha Rao-Monari, Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), met virtually today to discuss cooperation between the two agencies.

The meeting reaffirmed the importance of partnership between FAO and UNDP, with the Director-General and the USG/AA both expressing appreciation for the ongoing, positive collaboration between the organizations.

During the meeting, they shared views on the importance of innovation, digitalization, partnerships, sustainable financing, and the holistic design of development programmes and policies for building resilient agri-food systems and addressing the many challenges the agri-food sectors face, such as the climate crisis.

They also noted the positive progress attained thus far under the FAO-UNDP Memorandum of Understanding (signed in 2019), while emphasizing there is significant potential for growth in FAO-UNDP country-level collaboration.

In terms of the strategic direction of the Organization, the Director-General highlighted that FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022-2031 was recently endorsed by the FAO Conference and seeks to support the 2030 Agenda through the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

For her part, the USG/AA appreciated the close convergence between FAO’s new Strategic Framework, including the Four Betters, and UNDP’s new Strategic Plan 2022-2025, which she noted was also recently approved.

The two also agreed that a multi-stakeholder approach to partnerships (including the private sector, civil society, academia, cooperatives, foundations and many more) is critical in order for the UN family to deliver impact and results at scale.  Moreover, the Director-General and USG discussed the increasing importance of providing digital solutions in a rapidly changing world, in support of smallholder farmers and Members. 

They also briefly touched upon the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit, noting its importance in maintaining agri-food systems transformation high on the international agenda and as an event that can catalyze support for smallholder farmers worldwide.

The Director-General and USG/AA noted the two agencies would continue and intensify their positive collaboration, and explore opportunities for enhanced collaboration on matters such as the climate crisis, innovation and financing, digitalization, private sector partnerships and others.