Director-General Addresses The Joint Meeting Of FAO Programme And Finance Committees
13 November 2024, Rome: It is a pivotal time for global development challenges and partners need to take longer-term perspectives, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu,, said Monday in his opening address to the Joint Meeting of the Programme and Finance Committees.
“Together, we can elevate FAO’s visibility and centrality on a global scale, preparing for the future by designing longer and doing concrete based on FAO’s mandate,” the Director-General said.
He spoke at the Joint Meeting of the 139th Session of the Programme Committee and the 202nd Session of the Finance Committee, governing bodies that provide recommendations to the FAO Council on matters related to the programme of work and budget of the Organization. His full speech is available here.
FAO is currently discussing with Members on three key guidance documents: the reviewed Strategic Framework 2022-31, the Medium-Term Plan 2026-29 and the Programme of Work and Budget 2026-27.
Qu emphasized that the Strategic Framework 2022-31 has proven to be solid while noting that FAO is a “learning organization” open to thinking, learning and working together with partners and building on lessons learned, for even more effective collaboration going forward.
“This is truly a pivotal moment that will shape not only FAO’s direction, but the future of global food and agriculture for years,” he said. “We aim to identify opportunities for scaling up work and increasing impact, while leveraging FAO’s comparative advantages and taking into account strategic foresight insights on future trends and challenges,” the Director-General added.
FAO’s resource mobilization is on course to be its third highest ever, which is impressive given many key donor countries were in electoral cycles in 2024, Qu noted.
The Director-General highlighted major achievements such as FAO’s Global Environment Facility (GEF) Portfolio growing to $1.9 billion in grants and $13.4 billion in co-financing supporting 141 countries.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) portfolio is now supporting 89 countries with investments worth $1.4 billion, and sizable investments channeled through the FAO Investment Centre, the South-South and Triangular Cooperation approach, the One Country One Priority Product initiative and FAO’s Hand-in-Hand initiative, which in October offered 115 investment cases worth $15 billion and facilitated more than 600 matchmaking meetings requested by investors with participating Members.
Among other signs of FAO’s increasing attractiveness as a development partner, Qu noted the strong ties with the G7 and G20, including the latter’s growing interest in aquaculture as a priority area for effective climate-friendly actions and collective support for fostering a more sustainable and resilient coffee value chain. He also welcomed the focus of Brazil and Italy “for bringing food security back to the center of the global discussions” in the G20 and G7 respectively.
Focus on impact on the ground
While signs of increasing support for development over emergency funding is welcome, FAO remains highly committed to deliver critical agricultural aid and assistance to farmers most affected by conflict.
Acute food insecurity is set to increase across more than 20 countries in the coming months, with Haiti, Mali, Palestine, South Sudan and the Sudan at the highest alert levels, Qu noted.
He also noted that acute food insecurity in Afghanistan, where FAO leads a broad push to provide emergency agriculture assistance to compliment humanitarian efforts, is on course to be at its lowest level in three years.
FAO’s network of Country Offices is essential for impact on the ground, and making sure they are professional, modern, flexible, agile and responsive is a cornerstone of the Four Rs: Recover, Rebuild, and Reform for a Renaissance of FAO.
The Director-General emphasized that FAO remained committed to producing cost savings and efficiencies in all its operations, without compromising on quality and delivery. In this context, he referred to the expanded procurement process of the Organization which played a critical role in ensuring the effective delivery of FAO’s programmes, especially in emergency context, supported by a streamlined logistics function for sustainable supply chain management.
Finally, the Director-General emphasized the critical role of the Organization’s work force to deliver on its mandate, noting the efforts aimed at further streamlining the recruitment process, together with a more targeted outreach strategy to further increase diversity and address gender parity.
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