Read-out of the FAO Director-General’s meeting with Gerd Müller, Director-General of UNIDO (2022)

Rome – FAO Director-General QU Dongyu met today with Gerd Müller, Director-General of the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), on the sidelines of the World Food Forum.

Gerd Müller expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to meet the Director-General and thanked him for the ongoing collaboration with FAO.

For his part, the FAO Director-General expressed his appreciation to Müller for UNIDO’s ongoing support to the mandate of FAO, and for having accepted to speak at the official opening of the World Food Forum, which comprises three tracks: global youth in agrifood systems; hand-in-hand investment; and science and innovation.

The pair signed a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that contains seven areas of cooperation; 1) Agrifood systems transformation and agribusiness value chains; 2) Job creation; 3) Food security, food safety, circular economy and sustainable bioeconomy; 4) Joint normative work on global issues related to zero hunger, food safety and agrifood systems; 5) Secondment programme among officials of the organizations; 6) Multilateral collaboration such as the UN Trade Cluster; the COVID-19 Global Evaluation Coalition; and the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (IDDA III); and 7) Technical assistance and other activities that contribute to agricultural investments, spatial infrastructure development, the Food-Water-Energy-Ecosystem nexus, and digitalization.

These areas of common interest contribute to the Strategic Plans of both organizations, with direct linkages and alignment to FAO’s Programme Priority Areas set out in the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31, and UNIDO’s Interconnected Areas of Expertise.

The MoU, with an open-ended duration, foresees a 2-year Joint Partnership Action Plan with joint projects, programmes and activities that will be implemented in the context of existing FAO flagship initiatives, such as the One Country One Priority Product (OCOP), Hand-in-Hand and 1 000 Digital Villages.

The Director-General commended UNIDO’s work in helping to make agrifood systems more modern and productive, while maintaining traditional values and safeguarding sustainability.

The pair agreed to work closely together to support the transformation of agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable, and to collaborate on joint action for a world without hunger.

They also agreed that FAO and UNIDO will both contribute significantly to technology and knowledge transfer, as well as stimulate investments in agrifood systems to increase productivity, sustainability and decent jobs.