United Nations agencies should work in solidarity to tackle complex global crises, FAO Director-General says at UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee Deputies Group Meeting

Rome – United Nations agencies should work in solidarity and complement each other’s unique skills and technical expertise to efficiently tackle complex global crises, including acute food insecurity, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), said today in his opening remarks to the United Nations Inter-Agency Standing Committee Deputies Group Meeting. The meeting took place at FAO headquarters in Rome and brought together UN officials from UN agencies that work on the humanitarian front.

In his welcoming remarks, the Director-General gave a brief overview of how FAO and its sister agency the World Food Programme (WFP) had evolved throughout the years and how their work and support for other agencies was being increasingly recognized, including WFP’s Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the agency in October 2020.

Qu also emphasized the significance of the humanitarian-development-peace nexus in the international agenda to enhance the effectiveness of collective action to address food insecurity in conflict-affected contexts.

About the meeting

The bi-annual meeting focused on the following topics: racism and racial discrimination and how the humanitarian system is addressing them; strengthening humanitarian collaboration with development organizations, including addressing root causes of crises; and the internal review of the humanitarian response to internal displacement. Among other topics were humanitarian engagement ahead of the 28th session of the Conference of Parties (COP 28) and protection against sexual exploitation and abuse which was a standing topic of discussion for the Deputies.

The meeting saw the participation of delegates from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); International Office for Migration (IOM); Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); UN Human Rights (OHCHR); UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Women, WFP, World Bank, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC); NGO Networks and others.