FAO Director-General visits Egypt to participate in the World Youth Forum

Cairo, 12 December 2019 - Before participating in the high-level World Youth Forum in Sharm El-Shaikh, Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General, visited the Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa in Cairo, to meet with the Cairo-based FAO staff and had breakfast with his colleagues in the garden; in honour of the winning employees of the Employee Recognition Initiative 2019 and the Regional and Country offices' staff members.

Dongyu had a free-flowing casual meeting with the staff and praised the hard work in which inspired a strengthened regional collaboration with member states throughout the current calendar year. The Director-General also embraced the parity of gender representation in full-time staff in the office, calling for improved Human Resources' policies to empower women and youth in the organization.

On a parallel note to his participation in the forum, Dongyu highlighted in his Op-Ed today, the ongoing agriculture transformation underway in Asia and Africa; thanks to the digital revolution. "We cannot afford to miss it. We should support this wave and empower youth to lead it," he stated. Additionally, he confirmed FAO's readiness "to work with our UN partners and the UN System at large to support young entrepreneurs so they can create innovative solutions to meet the challenge of feeding the world's growing population amid the worsening threat of climate change."

Also today, the FAO Director-General discussed with HE Mr Ezz El Din Abu Steit, Egyptian Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, on strengthening cooperation and transforming the rural areas by empowering women and youth. During the meeting, Dongyu showed gratitude to Egypt for being in the front lines in promoting the newly launched Hand-in-Hand initiative. The innovation-driven initiative, through which partners across the public, private and other sectors can work together to end poverty and hunger and build prosperity in developing countries.