Opening of the High-level Session of the 2021 FAO-EU Strategic Dialogue - Welcoming Remarks by FAO Director-General Dr QU Dongyu

Welcoming Remarks by

FAO Director-General Dr QU Dongyu

Opening of the High-level Session of the 2021 FAO-EU Strategic Dialogue 

6 May 2021

As prepared

  

Honorable Commissioners,

Dear colleagues and friends,

1. I am pleased to welcome you to this high-level event to open the 2021 FAO-EU Strategic Dialogue.

2. This is a special year for our partnership. We are celebrating 30 years of successful collaboration on sustainable development. FAO values the effective cooperation and continuous support of the European Union. 

3. Through this Strategic Dialogue, we are entering into a new chapter of our relationship marked by the urgency to act in a coordinated manner to help agri-food systems become MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable. 

4. The new FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 seeks to support the 2030 Agenda through the ‘Four Betters’: Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment, and a Better life.

5. The four betters represent an organizing principle for how FAO intends to contribute directly to the 2030 Agenda, with the guiding lens of SDG 1 (No poverty), SDG 2 (Zero hunger), and SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities) as well as supporting the achievement of the broader SDG agenda. 

6. A number of programs and initiatives, starting with FAO’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme, the flagship Hand-in-Hand Initiative, together with our robust scientific and digital agenda, help us to translate this vision into concrete support and delivery for our Members.

7. The European Union on the other side, with the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies, has taken bold steps to keep the transformation of agri-food systems at the heart of its core policies. 

8. In the context of this sound partnership, I am pleased to be here today for the launch of this important dialogue between our institutions, to refine a solid common vision for the game-changing solutions the world needs.

9. Thank you.