A new Deputy Director-General of Programmes (DDP) was created at the end of last year. As we are all aware, the strategic programmes, liaison offices as well as OPC now report directly to DDP. The new Office of Chief Statistician (OCS), established at the same time to deal specifically with monitoring the SDGs is also under the DDP umbrella.

We spoke to Daniel Gustafson, DDG, DDP to find out how things are going.

You’ve changed hats, operations to programmes, how does it feel?

Very good. I have changed posts seven times in FAO, and I’ve always enjoyed what I do although I’ve always missed the team I was leaving. But this post is particularly interesting as a change, also because it allows me to work essentially with everybody. Indeed, the objective of this new role is to get everyone to work together around the programmes – integrating headquarters, the field, the technical units, the strategic programmes etc. – and so far it has been really enjoyable.

The reporting line for the SPLs has been elevated, how will this make a difference?

The most important aspect is that it formalises and institutionalises the role and the importance of the strategic programmes and strategic programme teams as important  entities. It elevates the programmes in an institutional sense, so that they have a recognized place in the overall scheme of things. In that sense, it makes quite a big difference, and hopefully this will be a big help in the long run.

How are these changes being received?

I think changes have been received reasonably well although it has been somewhat mixed, depending, I believe, on the level of direct engagement. We have held a series of meetings individually with each of the strategic programme teams, the regional teams and the technical departments, and there is a clear consensus on aspects such as why we need to work in a cross-cutting and cross-sectoral way, why we need to integrate and so on. Everyone has a somewhat different view on what works best and what needs to be improved, but overall, the ability to have an office that looks specifically at these issues has been well-received, even though there is still work to be done. Likewise, the change was also well-received by permanent representatives and their staff, who have been happy to see that these new DDP arrangements help to highlight FAO’s contribution to the SDGs and the Organization’s support to countries in achieving their goals.

What about the work in relation to the SDGs

It has always been central to FAO – even prior to the SDGs – that our technical work address larger societal development issues, thereby contributing to broader development goals.  I think we can all agree that FAO was at the forefront of this thinking. With the SDGs, governments agreed on 17 goals, which essentially approach this idea in a very similar way. Now the challenge for FAO is to highlight what we do in helping countries meet those goals, but also to disseminate and increase knowledge and awareness of how FAO contributes to the SDGs in ways countries and partners  clients haven’t necessarily appreciated in the past. In the past it was often difficult for countries to request help from FAO in ways that made a direct link between our  contribution and a broader inter-linking development  agenda. We could of course promote  our work in ways that highlighted its role in reducing poverty or improving equity and inclusiveness, for example,, but now, in the context of the SDGs, it really is much easier to emphasise the connection between FAOs work and these broader development goals. Before we had to sell the idea, now it is part of the vernacular, because countries have signed up for the same agenda and need to demonstrate their results.

Cross-cutting has really become the way of doing things in FAO

From the very beginning, the objectives that countries set out for FAO in 1945 look in many ways much  like the SDGs. The difficulty is in recognising how to put the technical pieces together in a way that leads to concrete results that are identifiable and quantifiable within a country’s own sustainable development goals. These are complex challenges that require a lot of support, partnership and help from everybody, and it can only be done in a multidisciplinary, cross-cutting way. Our strategic framework, the strategic programmes and the technical capacity that we have at the country level, regional level and at headquarters, unleashes a lot of energy and creativity that we have had for a long time, but puts them together in a way that I think heightens our responsiveness.