Readout of the meeting between FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, and Dr Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

18 October 2021, Rome - The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, and the Dr Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) met today to discuss further collaboration between FAO and UNFPA.

The Executive Director thanked the Director-General for FAO’s kind invitation to the FAO’s “VirtualiTea”, organized by the FAO Women’s Committee. On 31 May 2020, more than 300 members of the Women’s Committee tuned in to a virtual tea to listen to inspiring tales of passion and perseverance from Dr Kanem and Graça Machel, both of whom emphasized the importance of women knowing their own worth. The event was also attended by the Director-General.

The Director-General mentioned he had established the Office of SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs (OSL) two years ago as a first of its kind in the UN system. The Director of the Office, Angélica María Jácome Daza, a national from Panama, is also the Executive Chief of the Women’s Committee and Youth Committee at FAO.

The Director General also mentioned that the Women’s Committee and Youth Committee are concrete examples of innovations. The World Food Forum (WFF), powered by youth as well as women, is mobilizing the international energy of women and youth to help transform Agri-Food Systems and accelerate Rural Development.

The Executive Director underlined the importance of gender equity and in particular of empowering young women and girls to safeguard food security. The demographic dividend is the economic growth potential that can result from shifts in a population’s age structure. She also reiterated that to eradicate gender violence, it needs to be easy and safe to report cases.

The Executive Director congratulated FAO for its role during the Food Systems Summit process and expressed her appreciation for FAO’s support for nutrition during the ICPD+25 discussions. The Director-General said that fighting inequality and discrimination against women is part of our common mission, because women “Hold Up Half The Sky”.

In that respect, the Director-General referred to FAO's new Strategic Framework 2022-2031 that 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.

The pair is looking forward to working more closely together on generating more disaggregated quality statistics on gender related issues as well as doing joint advocacy to defend women’s and girls’ rights through the World Food Forum.