06 April 2025, Zimbabwe: FAO Director-General QU Dongyu welcomed the Vice President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, H.E Constantino Guveya Dominic Nyikadzino Chiwenga, to FAO headquarters and mentioned his appreciation for the strong collaboration that exists between FAO and Zimbabwe, highlighting the importance of solidarity between developing countries and the need to work together to progress the work of FAO towards achieving the Four Betters. The Director-General also emphasized that FAO was a Member-led organization and that therefore the voice of all Members was pivotal in steering the Organization in the right direction.
The Vice-President thanked the Director-General for the warm welcome and also noted his appreciation for the long existing relations between the two. He lauded the work of the FAO country team in Zimbabwe stating that they had contributed towards the improvement of the lives of the people of Zimbabwe. He acknowledged the indispensable role played by FAO in advancing and strengthening the food security agenda globally, and that Zimbabwe valued the partnership with FAO as it had contributed to rural development and country’s economic development and growth.
The Vice President commended FAO’s great response to global shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, and conveyed appreciation for the assistance extended to Zimbabwe to manage these shocks. In this regard, he informed that Zimbabwe had concluded its National Strategic Development Policy 1, and that the next phase to be launched soon included agriculture as a priority and it would continue to rely on FAO’s collaboration for its successful implementation. The Vice President further elaborated that this second phase aimed to advance climate proof agriculture through the rehabilitation of irrigation resources with a renewed focus on rural agriculture development.
The Vice President further appreciated the FAO Digital Villages initiative as it had improved the lives of rural women and youth and conveyed the government’s intention to expand it further. He also expressed appreciation for the FAO Hand-in-Hand initiative and that Zimbabwe looked forward to further deepening and strengthening cooperation on agriculture development in the country through various partnerships in support of agrifood system transformation.
The Director-General stated that Zimbabwe had good agricultural land that should be optimally utilized to produce high level value income cash crops. He also noted that Zimbabwe’s good agrifood system infrastructure could be further improved to be more efficient and effective through public private partnerships and enabling policies to increase investment to improve lives. He stated that Zimbabwe could be the food basket for the region if its potential for food production was increased through improved collaboration. The Director-General also referred to the need to improve land policy, which would assist in attracting investors, and in this regard informed that the annual World Food Forum was an important platform to attract investors thereby assisting Members in moving away from donor assistance which was facing challenges due to dwindling financial resources.
In conclusion, the Director-General reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to continue to support Zimbabwe in its efforts to achieve food and nutrition security.
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