Read-out of the FAO Director-General’s meeting with Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Rome - FAO Director-General QU Dongyu and IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi met today to discuss ways for continued strengthening of the FAO-IAEA partnership and bringing it to its full potential.

The FAO and IAEA Directors-General discussed their vision on further empowering the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre and overall improvement of the management of the Centre. Since implementation of the Revised Arrangement between the two organizations at the beginning of 2021, the Joint Centre’s responsibilities have significantly increased in scope.    

The FAO Director-General emphasized the importance of strengthening innovative R&D activities in the field of nuclear science, including through the FAO/IAEA Agriculture and Biotechnology Laboratories in Seibersdorf, near Vienna, Austria. The IAEA Director-Genera in turn invited the FAO Director-General to visit the facilities prior to its inauguration in 2023.

Grossi confirmed the IAEA’s active participation in COP27, which will take place in November 2022 in Egypt. Since the Directors-General’s meeting in July, FAO and IAEA teams have met and agreed to conduct joint events on areas of common interest, especially on climate change adaptation. IAEA is planning an Atoms4Climate pavilion (including nuclear applications in food and agriculture, and nuclear energy). FAO will focus on linkages between agrifood systems, food security and climate change.

The IAEA Director-General reiterated his desire for continuous and strong support for the Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action (ZODIAC) initiative, especially in the view of the current outbreaks of monkeypox and Lassa fever. ZODIAC will benefit from the expertise of the joint laboratories, and from cooperation with partners such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) under the One Health approach.