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Medium Term Plan 2018-21 and Programme of Work and Budget 2018-19

1 - On behalf of the Group of 77 and China, I would like to express our appreciation for the Director General's Medium-term Plan 2018-2021 and Programme of Work and Budget 2018-2019. We also thank the DG for adequately reflecting in the document some important guidance provided by Member States through FAO Conferences and Councils and the governing bodies.

2 - By the end of the Medium-term plan in 2021, Member States will be almost at forty percent of the road to implement the SDGs. FAO is entrusted with the implementation of 40 targets of the 169 targets as well as 53 indicators.
This is a huge responsibility for Member States as well as for FAO which can play a pivotal role in supporting national efforts in implementing the relevant SDGs. Countries which will not be able to grab this window of opportunity by 2021, will be highly unlikely to achieve the relevant targets by 2021.

3 - The G77 and China believes that the Organization has done good work in maintaining a nominal flat budget for the PWB 2018-2019, and we stress that any savings in personal costs should not undermine the technical capacity at Headquarters and decentralized offices especially for regional and country offices which do not have at the moment adequate technical capacities. We also stress that maintaining a nominal flat budget is an exceptional procedure in light of the current world economic situation and should not be used as a precedent for the future.

4 - We strongly welcome the restoration of the TCP to be 14% of the FAO budget, in line with Conference resolutions 9/1989 and 6/2015. We recognize the great effort made by the Director General and the organization to accomplish that, despite the financial constraints. However, since resolution 9/1989 called for the TCP not to be less than 14%, we expect that in the next biennium, the TCP will be increased further to match the growing needs of developing counties.

5 - We appreciate that the MTP seeks to achieve more coherence between FAO strategic objectives and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We expect that areas of priority for the developing countries such as food security, nutrition, climate change and sustainable agriculture will receive the deserved attention in the program of work both in the headquarter and at the decentralized offices. We note also that some important emerging issues such as climate change, statistics, gender equality and AMR are receiving increasing attention in the PWB both in terms of allocated resources and staff.

6 - While we acknowledge the attention given to peace resilience building, We stress that the proposed emphasis on the relation between peace building and food security be developed and implemented with due attention not to go beyond FAO's mandate and scope of work.

7 - We stress the importance of regional initiatives through the 10 million USD of the Multi-disciplinary fund. We Highlight the importance of FAO’s continuing support to countries in addressing the issue of water scarcity. We are confident that the FAO management will continue to adapt an inclusive and participatory process in the development and implementation of regional initiatives, and the review of the ongoing regional initiatives . Moreover, We Support the allocation of USD 1.1 M on poverty reduction, particularly capacity building in rural development, including smallholders and family farming. Furthermore, We note that family farming is among the regional initiatives being implemented and developed in Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Near East and North Africa.

8 - Besides the aforementioned priority areas, which are getting greater attention from FAO, the G77 + China calls for increased attention to the themes of biodiversity, land, water and energy - which are of key importance for both ecosystem protection and rural development worldwide.

9 - Energy, for instance, is a crosscutting to achieve FAO Strategic Objectives. The promotion of clean and efficient sources of energy, including bioenergy, is indeed essential to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, as we committed to do under the Paris Agreement. But the role of energy is much broader: SDG 7 - "Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all" - is crucial to achieve food security and promote rural development, among other important goals related to FAO's work. This understanding should be adequately reflected in the document, particularly in Figure 4, where SDG 7 should be among the other SDGs' targets and indicators included in the 2018-21 Strategic Objective results.

10 - Soil is also under represented in the PWB & MTP, considering its importance for agriculture, food security and the provision of ecosystems services. Despite the relevant work on soils carried out by the Global Soil Partnership, based in FAO, its total dependence on voluntary contributions does not reflect the theme's centrality and increasing relevance for FAO's main objectives.

11- Regarding the proposed de-emphasizing areas, the G77 + China would like to get more clarifications on the proposed deemphasis areas mainly and if it will affect the carried work in soil and water conservation activities, forestry as well as nutrition education which is an area of great importance in the context of the Decade of Action on Nutrition.

12 - Regarding women empowerment in the field, G77 + China recalls that most of the agricultural labor in developing countries, in particular the least developed ones, is carried out by women, working in difficult conditions, with low productivity and enormous physical effort. This can and must be overcome by our countries. And FAO can give its contribution, through:

➢ the creation of a Trust Fund based on voluntary contributions to support rural women in developing countries for the modernization of their agriculture tools.

➢ a explorative study (by FAO in collaboration with other partners) on low-cost and low-maintenance tools that could be used by women in small-scale agriculture.

13 - The G77 + China requests the secretariat to continue its effort to strengthen capacity building activities, including through South-South and Triangular cooperation. However, the function and nature of SSC has been weakened by transferring SSC to OPC. The G77+China hopes that FAO could prioritize SSC and Triangular cooperation in order to promote capacity building in developing countries, to solve problems and to improve livelihoods.

15 - The G77+China noticed that FAO streamlined CPA’s language services by outsourcing translation works. Although these adjustments reduced costs and took advantage of rapidly evolving language service technology and capacity worldwide. The G77+China emphasizes that this should ensure that FAO continue to deliver its work efficiently and effectively.

16 - The G77 + China believes that the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) are valuable assets of agricultural civilization and the success of biodiversity. GIAHS is good practice of agroecology in human history with the function of ecosystem protection, poverty alleviation, smallholders’ livelihoods improvement, cultural inheritance, natural genetic resources storage, and employment enhancement for rural women and youth, etc. They should be well preserved, specially supported and developed as well. The G77 + China appreciates the recommendations of Council and COAG and believes that the GIAHS work would provide a new momentum for developing countries to achieve the 2030 agenda and sustainable development goals. It is our conviction that GIAHS should be fully reflected in FAO MTP and PWB. The G77 + China suggests that PWB should address emphasis on allocating adequate budget to strengthen the staffing of GIAHS Secretariat in order to better disseminate GIAHS concept and improve its management, specifically in supporting the designation of more GIAHS in developing countries. We hope that each interested G77 + China member could have at least one GIAHS site designated in line with national priorities and policies.

17 - And finally, in line with the recommendation of the joint meeting of the finance and programme committees, We encourage Members to provide voluntary contributions to facilitate achievement of Strategic Objectives and implementation of the integrated Programme of Work, taking into account that the new UN scale of assessed contributions will make developing countries to contribute more to the regular budget from this year on.

In conclusion, we expect that Members show the same constructive spirit we had last year in the discussions of financial matters so that we can reach a consensus on budget during the Council and ahead of the Conference in July