36th Session of the FAO Regional Conference for the Near East (NERC36) FAO Dialogue with the Private Sector
by Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
12/07/2021
36th Session of the FAO Regional Conference for the Near East (NERC36)
FAO Dialogue with the Private Sector
Statement by
Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
As prepared
12 July 2021
Distinguished Participants,
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
1. I am pleased to open this first FAO regional dialogue with the private sector in the Near East and North Africa Region.
2. Today’s dialogue provides an opportunity to listen to each other,
3. to familiarize you with FAO’s work in the region and beyond, and
4. to seek opportunities for a concerted engagement to achieve the 2030 Development Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
5. FAO’s contribution to the 2030 Agenda focuses on transforming the world’s agri-food systems making them MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable.
6. FAO’s new Strategic Framework, which will guide our work over the next decade, aims for Better production, Better nutrition, a Better environment, and a Better life - for current and future generations.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
7. The private sector is a key ally in the global fight against food insecurity, malnutrition and rural poverty.
8. Establishing constructive partnerships and engagement with the private sector is key to realizing the objectives of the SDGs.
9. It is encouraging to see the interest and willingness of the private sector to support sustainable development in the region.
10. Together we can deal with the challenges of the region, empower the most vulnerable communities, including smallholder producers, the youth, and women, through inclusive pro-poor interventions in rural areas.
11. Investments in the agri-food sectors are part of this solution.
12. Such investments can drive the introduction of innovations for more sustainable agricultural practices.
13. They can promote more efficient value chains and more responsible consumption patterns.
14. Targeted investment can also support development models that offer opportunities for decent employment in rural areas through inclusive rural development.
15. FAO can help identify and unlock opportunities for investments in agriculture.
16. Since I took office, less than two years ago, I have worked towards developing a transparent result-oriented engagement with the private sector to increase responsible and productive investments in agriculture.
17. The FAO Strategy for Private Sector Engagement 2021-2025 further strengthens our interaction;
18. to bring about transformative change and innovation with measurable, sustainable impact and benefits.
19. Engagement with the private sector can:
o enhance efficiency in the supply chains;
o disseminate advancements in data and science;
o improve the management and dissemination of knowledge; and
o encourage sustainable business practices.
20. I invite you all to make use of the newly created FAO Connect portal, an interactive platform and ‘one-stop shop’ scoping FAO and private sector engagements.
21. The portal allows you to engage, browse and discover key opportunities for partnership and how to work with FAO, both formally and informally.
22. FAO also continues to support countries in strengthening the enabling environment for responsible private investment
23. Through a multi-stakeholder process, FAO supported the development of the Principles for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems in the Committee on World Food Security (CFS).
24. These principles allow private and public operators to ensure that their investments will contribute to achieving the SDGs.
25. Responsible investments in agriculture and food systems are essential for ensuring food security and access to safe, healthy nutrition for all.
26. Responsible investments make significant contributions to:
o enhancing sustainable livelihoods, in particular smallholders and members of marginalized and vulnerable groups,
o creating decent work for all agricultural and food workers,
o eradicating poverty,
o fostering social and gender equality,
o promoting social participation and inclusiveness, and
o increasing economic growth,
o thereby achieving sustainable development.
27. I invite all stakeholders in the region to implement those principles in support of their efforts to achieve the SDGs.
28. Innovations are pivotal in this respect.
29. Innovative financing will facilitate access to financial services by Small and Medium Enterprises, particularly in less developed areas,
30. and bring together producers and consumers through shorter and more resilient value chains.
31. FAO is a strong supporter of digital innovations that lead to more inclusive, and sustainable agri-food systems, and healthier diets for all.
32. We are doing our part to foster better, greener and more inclusive innovations in food and agriculture.
33. And the private sector is ideally placed to support innovations and improved technologies.
34. Innovation must be a driving force, for the public and the private sector, as well as civil society.
35. This conviction led me to establish the Office of Innovation, to continue embedding and upscaling innovation in FAO’s work.
36. Such transformative structural reforms, together with our flagship activities like the Hand-in-Hand Initiative, provide a solid framework to achieve meaningful collective impact.
37. The Hand-in-Hand initiative focuses uses match-making partnerships with donor countries, development banks, the private sector and others to accelerate agricultural transformation and sustainable rural development.
38. FAO aims to facilitate access by the most vulnerable communities to investments, markets and more effective production tools, to render them active actors in agricultural transformation and rural development.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
39. The Near East and North Africa Region is currently facing several major challenges directly linked to the way food is produced, processed, distributed and consumed.
40. The indicators are not good.
41. The latest edition of the FAO Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition estimates that more than
51 million people in the region are suffering from hunger.
42. Hunger in the region continues to rise and we expect that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will further worsen the situation in the years to come.
43. While conflicts and crises are the main drivers behind the deteriorating hunger situation, the region’s agri-food systems are failing to deliver affordable, diverse, safe and nutritious food to all
44. Rising demand to feed a fast-growing population in the region, coupled with environmental pressures, have translated in a rapid degradation of the region’s natural resources.
45. And while our production systems are collapsing, we continue to waste a large part of the food we produce.
46. We owe it to our children to secure a more sustainable world for the future.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
47. The private sector is a driving force to boost markets, consumers and farmers.
48. An enhanced engagement of the private sector can provide capacity development, investments and a new professional market-oriented business model.
49. I invite you to share your perspective on the challenges this region’s agri-food systems are facing, and how we can address them together to bring about effective transformation.
50. I look forward to listening to your ideas on how we can:
o ensure that everybody in the region has access to affordable healthy diets;
o make the food value chains more efficient, with less waste and losses; and
o move towards a greener and more sustainable agriculture that preserves the natural resources.
51. Share with us your views on eventual bottlenecks and constraints that hinder a better engagement with the private sector in the region, and how to overcome them.
52. I hope that today’s meeting is just the first of a series of interactions that will bring us closer together and allow us to better understand each other.
53. The results of this dialogue will be submitted to the Near East Regional Conference in 2022, which will give us an opportunity to discuss those outcomes with Governments and other stakeholders in the Region.
54. FAO is ready to engage with you in the noble mission of eradicating hunger, eliminating poverty and ensuring that no one is left behind through Better production, Better nutrition, a Better environment and a Better life.
Thank you.