Read-out of the bilateral meeting between FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, and Svenja Schulze, Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany

Today the FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu met in Rome with Svenja Schulze, Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany.

The Director-General thanked the Minister for Germany’s long-standing support to FAO and their efforts through the G7 presidency to address the global food security situation.

The Minister mentioned the recently launched Global Alliance for Food Security and underlined the important role of FAO in the Alliance and indicated Germany would like to continue work closely together with FAO. FAO is already providing technical expert support that lies at the heart of the Alliance.

The pair discussed ways to further work together through important international fora and initiatives, to prevent the next famine, like for example through the Global Crisis Response Group. They also discussed ways to cooperate closer on how to make the vast body of FAO knowledge available and accessible to the Global Alliance.

The Director-General recalled that after almost 80 years since the first United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture in Hot Spring, Virginia, United States on 19 May 1943 that led to the establishment of FAO, still 1 out of 9 people worldwide suffer from hunger, and that the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the Climate Crisis made the situation worse. Apart from humanitarian aid, he further underlined the importance of agriculture, rural development and normative work, that requires long term investments and engagement.

The Director-General recalled the various meetings he had with the German Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir, as well as the support provided by FAO since the start of the German G7 Presidency in 2022.

They agreed on the need to work collectively on world food security for all, and on the pivotal role knowledge plays.