Read-out of the bilateral meeting between FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine of Ireland, Charlie McConalogue

27 July 2021, Rome - The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, and Charlie McConalogue, Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine of Ireland, met and valued the close collaboration between FAO and Ireland and the recently renewed commitment to the partnership for a peaceful, equal and sustainable world.

The Director-General mentioned that the dramatic worsening of world hunger in 2020 calls for us to transform our global agri-food systems, making them MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable. He further indicated that the strong cooperation between FAO and the Republic of Ireland will contribute substantially to addressing today’s greatest challenges and accelerate the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.

The Minister said he is happy to be participating in the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit and looks forward to engaging in close partnership with FAO during and after the Summit too. The Director-General invited the Minister to contribute to the World Food Forum (WFF) scheduled for October this year, and annually in the future. The WFF is a youth-led movement and network, started by FAO’s Youth Committee, to transform agri-food systems, innovate and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular “zero hunger”.

Minister McConalogue indicated that Ireland has just renewed their 10-year Agri-Food Strategy and is using a Food Systems approach. The Director-General underlined the importance of Ireland for FAO members by sharing their longstanding experience in the food and agriculture sector. He invited the country to share this knowledge widely through the evidence-based, country-led and country-owned Hand-in-Hand Initiative, underlining that agri-food systems transformation starts with healthy soils and grasslands and that transformation need to be science-based. The new digital FAO provides a platform for members to exchange their knowledge and experience in areas such as rural development, green and resilient agriculture, at the global, regional, and country levels.