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Medium Term Plan 2018-21 and Programme of Work and Budget 2018-19

Thank you Mr. Chair,

I deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

At the outset, I would like to express our appreciation for the spirit of cooperation that led to the Council approval of the budget level of USD 1,005.6.for 2018-2019 for the second time in a row.

The G77 and China believes that the Organization has done good work in maintaining a nominal flat budget for the PWB 2018-2019, which was realistic in view of prevailing global macro-economic conditions. Nevertheless, this should not be a precedent for the future.

The budget may be increased in the future depending on the needs of the organization and its ability to deliver its programme of work without undermining the technical capacity at Headquarters and decentralized offices especially for regional and country offices which do not have at the moment adequate technical capacities.

We call on donors to provide voluntary contributions to address priorities that could not be accommodated within the PWB net appropriation resources in a flat nominal budget which is in line with the recommendation of the joint meeting of the finance and programme committees taking into account that the new UN scale of assessed contributions will make developing countries to contribute more to the regular budget from this year on.

We strongly welcome the council decision to restore of the TCP to be 14% of the FAO budget, in line with Conference resolutions 9/1989 and 6/2015. We recognize the great effort made by the Director General and the organization to accomplish that, despite the financial constraints. However, since resolution 9/1989 called for the TCP not to be less than 14%, we expect that in the next biennium, the TCP will be increased further to match the growing needs of developing counties.

We appreciate that the MTP seeks to achieve more coherence between FAO strategic objectives and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We support
the priorities and resources allocations, as well for the Strategic Objectives including the allocated resources to sustainable agriculture production, agroecology, biodiversity, Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) and biotechnologies.

We call on allocating more resources to support FAO’s work in connection with conflict-affected rural livelihoods in line with organization’s mandate and scope of work.

We stress the importance of regional initiatives through the 10 million USD of the Multi-disciplinary fund. We Highlight the importance of FAO’s continuing support to countries in addressing the issue of water scarcity. We are confident that the FAO management will continue to adapt an inclusive and participatory process in the development and implementation of regional initiatives, and the review of the ongoing regional initiatives. Moreover, We Support the allocation of USD 1.1 M on poverty reduction, particularly capacity building in rural development, including smallholders and family farming. Furthermore, We note that family farming is among the regional initiatives being implemented and developed in Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Near East and North Africa.

Mr Chair,

The area of south-South cooperation is one of the key priorities of the G77 and China. We call on FAO to continue to give priority to the use of partnerships to enable the Organization to leverage its comparative advantages, including through South-South and Triangular cooperation.
The G77 + China requests the secretariat to continue its effort to strengthen capacity building activities, including through South-South and Triangular cooperation.

Mr Chair

The G77 + China calls for increased attention to the themes of biodiversity, land, water and energy - which are of key importance for both ecosystem protection and rural development worldwide.

Energy, for instance, is a crosscutting to achieve FAO Strategic Objectives. The promotion of clean and efficient sources of energy, including bioenergy, is indeed essential to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, as we committed to do under the Paris Agreement. However, the role of energy is much broader: SDG 7 - "Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all" - is crucial to achieve food security and promote rural development, among other important goals related to FAO's work. This understanding should be adequately reflected in the document, particularly in Figure 4, where SDG 7 should be among the other SDGs' targets and indicators included in the 2018-21 Strategic Objective results.

Soil is also under represented in the PWB & MTP, considering its importance for agriculture, food security and the provision of ecosystems services. Despite the relevant work on soils carried out by the Global Soil Partnership, based in FAO, its great dependence on voluntary contributions does not reflect the theme's centrality and increasing relevance for FAO's main objectives. So far, the Healthy Soils Facility has been able to mobilize less than 1/6th of the planned indicative budget for a period of five years.

Regarding women empowerment in the field, G77 + China recalls that most of the agricultural labor in developing countries, in particular the least developed ones, is carried out by women, working in difficult conditions, with low productivity and enormous physical effort.

The G77+China noted that FAO streamlined CPA’s language services by outsourcing translation works. Although these adjustments reduced costs and took advantage of rapidly evolving language service technology and capacity worldwide. The G77+China emphasizes that this should ensure that FAO continue to deliver its work efficiently and effectively.

The G77 and China welcomes the Director-General’s proposal contained in the Information Note no. 4, which was published last week. We support the proposal to authorize the DG to transfer any unspent balance of the 2016-17 budget to the special Fund for Development Activities (the SFDA). The G77 and China Members discussed this issue in their plenary meeting on the 30th of June 2017, receiving positive comments with no objections and emphasizing the importance of this Fund in mobilizing voluntary resources for priority areas of FAO’s technical support to Member Countries, including on climate change.
The Finance Committee and the FAO Council have previously approved the establishment of this fund keeping in mind that it could be financed through carry over balance from previous years. It is regrettable that the balance of this fund is zero at the moment, and it is the duty of this body to find ways of financing it in a way that would allow out to carry out its functions and achieve its objectives.
With these comments, the G77 and China call on the Conference authorize the Director-General to use any unspent balance from the 2016-17 budget, on a one-time basis, for the SFDA in the 2018-19 biennium”

Thank you