First Global Working Conference of FAO Representatives 2023 Opening Remarks

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to FAO HQ and your headquarters!

When I took office in August 2019, I told my then senior DDG, Dan Gustafson, that my aim was to build One Big FAO Family – and starting from today for this week I am happy to see the whole family gathered here together!

This is indeed an historic occasion, which I hope will be the start of a long tradition in the years to come – every year we will have an annual working conference, we’ve started in Rome, but rotationally we will hold it in each of the regions (in the chronological order of the Regional Conferences!).

I am pleased to see so many energized and motivated colleagues from all our FAO offices around the world, together with the Core Leadership Team and headquarter-based colleagues.

We need to work hard to be accountable to our Members and our partners!

Today embodies the realisation of thinking together, working together, learning together, and growing together as One FAO family!

And as a family, we must appreciate our family values, even when we have disagreements.

This meeting also provides me with the opportunity to express my personal thanks and appreciation in person to all of you from the front lines.

This week we have a number of important events taking place: the 100 Young and 100 Young-at-Heart Best, the Employee Recognition Awards, the 25 Year Medal Ceremony, and this Global Working Conference of FAORs – I am really pleased that you could join us at FAO HQ for these important ceremonies!

Thank you for your dedication, passion and contribution to the Organization in support of our Members, especially those of you working under extremely difficult situations. In particular, I wish to mention Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen, the Tigray region in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Haiti, Somalia etc.

Remember, we are not a “fashionable” organization. We represent the farmers, working for the vulnerable people – we are not a rich organization – we need to build resilience. As FAO DG I follow this philosophy every day.

We have come together in Rome to jointly develop a concrete action plan to strengthen our work to, among others:

• improve our internal management – with adequate support from headquarters to address your specific challenges; we cannot change our history but we can change our culture;
• ensure a coherent network,
• increase our systematic capacities, and
• refocus our efforts to be even more results oriented.

We also need to refresh, reboot, and redirect our work strategy and business model – each of you needs to find your business model to fit your specific contexts - as well as our commitment to our mandate, paving the way for effective implementation and operations leading to concrete results on the ground.

And you need to do this in line with the FAO Constitution and Basic Texts and General Rules of the Organization, and in accordance with your specific local conditions.

Let’s be reminded of our primary clients: the world’s farmers, consumers, women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and rural populations.

Our aspiration of the Four Betters – which overarch our Strategic Framework for the next remaining eight years – guide our actions to assist Members speed up the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs.

And are the four interconnected dimensions of agrifood systems transformation, directly in line with our mandate.

The Four Betters have been our priority over the past four years and will continue to be our priority for the next four years, and hopefully beyond, as we work together towards transforming our agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable.

Since starting my second term as FAO Director-General, I have stressed the additional need to lead the FAO internal change by focusing on the “four R’s”:

• First is RECOVERY: from the pandemic and broken facilities, especially in the field and we are in touch with relevant regional offices to ensure that the facilities are upgraded and modernized;
• Second is REFORM: of our systems and management to be fit for purpose and aligned with our mandate;
• Third is to REBUILD: FAO’s network and comprehensive capacity; and
• Fourth is a RENAISSANCE of FAO for a better future. In European history, which gave rise to this term, the word “renaissance” refers to a rebirth after long darkness.

The “four Rs” build upon the work we carried out together under the “four Es”:

• Efficiency
• Effectiveness
• Extraordinary
• Excellency

You will have noticed that I have a preference for the number four! Let me give you the scientific explanation: for example, chairs have four legs for stability.

The number four is a powerful symbol: it is the symbol of the four elements: fire, water, earth, and air – which in many ancient cultures, were seen as the basic building blocks of life, and as having a strong influence on our physical and emotional wellbeing.

It also symbolizes the four weeks in a month and four seasons in a year: winter, spring, summer, and autumn – which are fundamental to the cycle of life, and necessary for successful plant growth.

Furthermore, the four points of the compass were believed to hold the world in place, because the four corners of the world need to be in harmony for us to thrive.

Dear Colleagues,

The Programme of Work and Budget (PWB) 2024-25 supports the five key dimensions for the next four years I set out for my second term of office:

• One: further increasing resource mobilization and scaling-up both traditional and new partnerships;
• Two: fully leveraging FAO’s potential and advancing innovation-driven transformation;
• Three: through the World Food Forum assist in promoting tailored investment plans of Hand-in-Hand countries to provide solid support for less developed countries;
• Four: strengthen FAO’s capacity and capability to serve Members; and
• Five: improve human resources development and attract the best talents from all corners of the world.

The new modular and flexible headquarters organizational structure is one of the main initiatives I undertook upon my arrival and remains in place as one of the key components for the implementation of the Strategic Framework.

We are now looking towards an efficient, agile, and modern decentralized network, after having completed the review and restructure of Regional and Subregional Offices.

Now we are moving into the transformation of the FAO business model for country offices.

That is why we are holding this Global Working Conference!

With the aim of increasing the quality, opportunities, and effectiveness of regional work and support to FAO Country Offices, while fostering collaboration and breaking down silos between regional, subregional, and national teams and units.

Strong cross-continental collaboration and experience sharing by the FAORs will result in increased and more efficient and effective service to our Members, to the benefit of those who need FAO the most.

I encourage you to build good, strong relations with the governments of the Country Offices, and then to reach out to colleagues across the regions and continents.

Following the restructuring of Regional and Subregional Offices in 2022, the Decentralized Offices now need to position themselves strategically within the UN system.

The FAO Strategic Framework is a powerful roadmap and toolbox for country offices to draw upon to reposition themselves.

We need to continue working even harder as ONE FAO, to ensure that our colleagues at the country level are provided with the tools and technical expertise they need to strengthen FAO’s credibility in the wider context of the UN Joint Country Programming arrangements.

To better support UN country teams, Resident Coordinators, and local partners in transforming national agrifood systems, and national pathways. The UNFSSS Follow-up Coordination Hub, hosted by FAO on behalf of the UN wide system, is an important instrument to support national pathways.

Dear Colleagues,

Reforming and transforming Decentralized Offices is a mandatory step to ensure that we work efficiently, effectively, and coherently as ONE FAO.

Be modern, professional, digital FAORs, not traditional bureaucrats!

To ensure a more efficient and modern FAO for the future, we need to pay attention to a number of key areas, including:

• Business Management,
• Human Resources,
• Digital FAO,
• Governance,
• Communications,
• Multilingualism,
• Safety, Security, and Health Services, and
• Overall Staff Wellbeing.

To address the evolving context and the challenges and gaps identified to strengthen the Decentralized Offices network, discussions will take place during the 2024 Regional Ministerial Conferences on further measures to better reflect country contexts.

I have asked my Special Representative Laurent Thomas, together with ADG Beth Crawford, to work with each of the Regions on how best to strengthen the country offices before and after the Regional Ministerial Conferences.

Over my long career, I have undertaken four large reforms in China and each time it was about bringing about a systemic reform to increase efficiency and effectiveness, it was not about individual staff members. 

The Regional Conferences are fundamental to guide our work and to ensure that FAO programmes are context specific.

At the end 2024, when we meet again, we will report back on solid progress and outcomes. I invite all of you to take your share of the responsibility, of the accountability to Members especially following the 5.6 percent increase they approved in our budget.

Agrifood systems are closely interlinked with the environment. As I told the Council last week, agriculture is regionalized as it is dependent on the regional natural resources and environment.

For this reason, the Regional Conferences can define their specific requirements and priorities, and we need to wait for their recommendations to develop a solid implementation plan.

We will continue to strengthen partnerships through the establishment of regional Knowledge Hubs, which will have distinctive features and complementary functions and will be hosted in countries that have specific knowledge and capacity and tools to offer both regionally and globally.

I was pleased that the FAO Council last week recognized the primary importance of empowering youth and women, officially establishing the FAO Office of Youth and Women (FAO-OYW) for the effective transformation of agrifood systems and rural development.

This Office will provide important support to your work on the ground. Women and youth are real game changers for the Four Betters, and the cross-cutting catalysts for implementing the FAO Strategic Framework.

Remember that even developed countries need young farmers!

Dear Colleagues,

Over the next three days, I encourage you to share experiences and lesson learned across the entire network, and to integrate more with relevant colleagues in HQ and other regions.

You are the engine and accountable staff behind the ongoing reform and renewal of FAO. You are the window and imagination of FAO for deliverables in the countries. The New FAO is in your hands.

Whatever we do, the world is watching us. They not only listen to what we say, they are watching what we are doing. What we are going to deliver.

The FAO Renaissance will be realized only if we are determined to think together, work together, and contribute together to Recover, Rebuild, and Reform.

Working together as one Global Team and tackling all challenges hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder! This is the way we will reach the goal of what we have designed!

Thank you.