UN Under-Secretary-General Liu says FAO’s role is critical in helping countries transform their agricultural systems

During their meeting today, Liu Zhenmin, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs told FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu that the UN has high expectations on FAO’s ability to help countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

He congratulated Qu for taking office at FAO and expressed confidence that the organization and its Member States stand to benefit from the new Director-General’s experience and his focus on innovation, including technological.

Liu stressed FAO’s critical responsibility in mobilizing international efforts to help countries transform their agricultural sectors to improve production and combat hunger and poverty, and said that to do this, FAO can count on the support of the entire UN system.

Qu thanked Liu and described his vision for FAO which is based on delivering tangible results. These include the new Hand-In-Hand Initiative, which targets work that benefits people in the world’s most vulnerable regions including small island states, least developed and landlocked countries.

The UN Under-Secretary-General encouraged Qu to operationalize the Hand-In-Hand Initiative and to coordinate this with other UN agencies.