Get to know Jocelyn Brown Hall, Director of FAO North America

We are excited to introduce you to Jocelyn Brown Hall, the new Director of the FAO Liaison Office for North America. A U.S. citizen, Brown Hall joins FAO North America from her previous position as the FAO Representative for Ghana and the Deputy Regional Representative of FAO’s Regional Office for Africa, and her tenure with the U.S. Department of Agriculture which spans more than 20 years.  

1. Welcome back to your old city! What are you most excited about as you join the FAO Liaison Office for North America? What goals do you hope to accomplish in your new role?

During my 23 years at the USDA, I always saw people in this position and thought what a really cool job to get to advocate for FAO to the U.S. and Canadian governments, private sector, and civil society.  In terms of what I hope to accomplish, I want to make sure that Canadian and U.S. partners understand the value of FAO, and the Director-General’s vision of the Four Betters: better agriculture, better nutrition, better environment, and better life. There is a wealth of knowledge and dedicated people at FAO working on reducing hunger and poverty, improving food safety, One Health, biodiversity, nutrition, and the list goes on. My goal is to promote how FAO is doing this and that we reach as many partners and players as we can in the North American region. 

2. As we face the global challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and rising food insecurity, agri-food systems transformation is urgently needed. What key action areas do you think need to be highlighted during the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit and beyond?

It is daunting what we have before us, and I feel that very acutely as a parent of three children. I worry about their future. The first thing I want to highlight is how central agriculture is to the climate discussion – from production, processing, packaging, transporting, and retail - everything from farm to fork. It is great to see that agri-food systems have gotten the recognition they need to be seen as a solution to climate change. To this end, I have learned about the great work our office is doing in collaboration with North American Indigenous Peoples connecting the focus of Indigenous Peoples’ food systems to the global discussion for the Food Systems Summit and beyond as key allies and action areas to face climate change and food systems transformation.

3. What role do you see partnerships with the private sector, technological innovators, and Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge playing in the transition towards more sustainable and resilient food systems?

We are not going to move the needle on food insecurity without the private sector. We need to make sure that we think of farmers, agriculture producers, and ranchers, as micro- or small businesses. There are also large corporate private sectors in every country, and the new FAO private sector strategy calls to identify areas of interest where we can help link up innovations to relevant sectors that do not have access to them.

Before I took this job, I was the FAO Representative for Ghana, as well as the Deputy Regional Representative for the FAO Regional Office for Africa, and I was communicating a lot with the private sector to bring financial inclusion to rural areas, since access to finance and credit is a major impediment to decent rural employment. At FAO, we need to think about further harnessing such technologies that can be game-changers such as geospatial information, applications on phones, digitalization for information access – there is a whole host of ways that we can embrace this.  Our Director-General has a vision of 1000 Digital Villages to transform poverty and hunger, and I intend to do my part to be part of that solution.

In terms of Indigenous Peoples and traditional knowledge, certainly, the U.S. and Canada, and the rest of the world, are increasingly focusing attention on Indigenous Peoples’ ways of life and their rights. I am proud of the work the FAO North America office has done in this space of working with Indigenous Peoples to highlight the importance of Indigenous Peoples' food systems and their role as stewards of biodiversity. Indigenous Peoples have a very important voice and we need to have them at the table.

 4. Given your extensive background at USDA and upbringing in North America are there any agricultural, nutritional, or food issues specific to North America that you find particularly interesting and that you are excited to work on?

I am excited that the United States has picked up the issue around climate change, and understands the important role that agriculture and food systems play in climate change.  There are so many new technologies in the whole spectrum of agriculture and food systems that can mitigate climate change—anything ranging from water-saving technologies to green energy sources to drought-resistant germplasm to composting.  I want to highlight that each of us has a role to play, from the producer to the processer to marketer to consumer, to reverse the effects of climate change.

5. How did you enter the food and agriculture space?

The food and agriculture space is such an enormously fascinating and vast area. When you talk about agriculture, you talk about producers and their relationship to the land, people’s values, Indigenous Peoples, languages, nutrition, food safety, forestry, biodiversity, water quality and availability, and oceans! I have learned so much about oceans since I joined FAO, since that was not an area I covered at the USDA.

I was an American literature major and graduated during the Wall Street boom of the 1980s. To my parent’s horror, instead of going into banking or advertising, I joined the Peace Corps and served as a Volunteer. I was assigned to teach English as a Second Language at the Northwest Province Agricultural University in Peshawar, Pakistan, professors who were interested in pursuing higher degrees abroad. It was challenging to teach older men, as a young, single woman, but I learned a lot. My students were agricultural economists, veterinarians, botanists – it really struck a chord for me. There is more to the story – but this was the fundamental part.

My dad was a huge proponent of traveling and learning other languages. When I was in high school in 1983, he took my sister and me to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.  It was so different from my life that it made an enduring impression. My father was also a champion of the United Nations. I hope he is looking down at me and is proud.

 6. What do you enjoy doing for fun in your downtime? We know you majored in English Literature, any favorite novels you’re indulging in?

I always joke saying that I grew up in an urban area, not a farm; I don’t like to garden or cook, and I am not really a foodie - the only thing I like to do in the food and fiber space is knit!  I am very grateful for the sheepherders and cotton and flax growers that allow me to pursue my knitting passion.

I am an avid swimmer and I enjoy reading; I also write and am currently working on a piece around COVID-19 and the meaning of life through different cultural lenses.