The Joint Meeting of the Finance and Programme Committees met yesterday morning. In his opening remarks, the Director-General noted that these past few weeks had been busy ones and that there was more to come, in particular, the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) which will begin in exactly two weeks.

The Director-General observed that FAO had come a long way on many issues, such as the achievement of savings and reduced administration and bureaucracy as well as identifying new opportunities and responding to governments’ requests for action in unforeseen areas, such as the Ebola crisis.

Areas such as partnerships with the private sector, civil society organizations and academia have flourished over the last two years: FAO has formalized over 50 partnerships. ”We are not interested in quantity, but quality,” said the Director-General, “it is important that there is value-added”.

Regarding the next Programme of Work and Budget, the Director-General was very clear, saying that perhaps further savings could be found but they would have a very small financial impact. “I am not willing to make any budget cut that will put our programme of work at risk”, he added.

The meeting applauded the frank and frequent manner with which the Director-General had engaged with Members, particularly in these Joint Meetings. The floor also made its congratulations on the formal nomination by Brazil of Jose Graziano da Silva for re-election as Director-General at the 2015 Conference.

The Director-General thanked the meeting for its support, in particular for Members’ backing to his proposal to lower costs charged by FAO to donors who provide voluntary contributions. He also noted that as the independent review of governance reform affirmed, increased trust had made the Organization’s transformative change possible. In this regard, Members voiced concern on findings emerging from the draft report of the review which might potentially hamper the trust that had been rebuilt over the past few years.

“I am convinced that we will keep our focus on the important issue ahead of us: work together towards a sustainable world with food security and adequate nutrition for all. I can assure you that I will not be distracted from this goal until the end of my mandate,” said the Director-General, “And now, let’s focus on ICN2.”