From the visits of Prince Charles and theGlobal Indigenous Youth Caucus (GIYC) to headquarters, to the Director-General’s ongoing visit to crisis-stricken parts of Africa, and the release of new FAO reports, it has been a busy past few days for the Organization. 
Prince Charles of Wales visited headquarters on Wednesday and was briefed by the three Rome-based agencies on the hunger crises facing north-eastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
During his visit, Prince Charles was shown photos and maps detailing the situation in which a total of 30 million people are severely food insecure.
In a video link from Mogadishu, FAOR in Somalia, Richard Trenchard, provided an update on efforts by FAO and its partners to stave off famine in the country where, protracted conflict is exacerbated by successive droughts caused by climate change.
Prince Charles said, "Would you give my kindest wishes and admiration to all your colleagues and staff who are working in such very challenging and difficult circumstances."
On Wednesday evening the Director-General left headquarters for north-eastern Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin for a trip in which he will highlight the need to support local efforts to increase the resilience of people in rural areas; the agriculture-based livelihoods of many have been hit hard by recurrent crises in the region. On his visit the Director-General is meeting local farmers on several FAO supported farms in Gongolong and Old Maiduguri, north-eastern Nigeria’s Borno State, as well as staff in the FAO office in Maiduguri.
Our colleagues in the field have been working tirelessly in these areas – and with success, such as in north-east Nigeria where FAO’s support has been instrumental in the very good harvest expected. The Organization is faced with one of the largest food crises since 1945 with one country in famine (South Sudan) and three countries on the brink of famine (Yemen, Somalia and north-eastern Nigeria). A dedicated web page called Facing famine has been set up with profiles and information on each country.
The Global Indigenous Youth Caucus (GIYC) has been meeting with FAO at headquarters for the first time this week. The event offered FAO an opportunity to strengthen links with Indigenous groups, and during Wednesday’s spiritual welcome ceremony the Director-General stressed that “resiliency in the face of uncertainty from climate change can benefit from indigenous knowledge and practices.”
The meetings between FAO and the Indigenous representatives have extended well beyond headquarters, as the GIYC participants have been hosted by FAO colleagues making their visit more comfortable, enjoyable and personal.
At the beginning of the week a meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) took place at headquarters. Maria Helena Semedo, DDG, commended the Russian Federation for its strong commitment to back FAO’s efforts in promoting global food safety and preventing the spread of medicine-resistant superbugs in food and on farms in five Central Asian countries.
Also at the beginning of the week, the report Counting the Cost: Agriculture in Syria after six years of crisiswas released. Published ahead of an international conference on Syria's future in Brussels, the report presents the first comprehensive nationwide assessment of the damage of the war on the agriculture sector, and suggests it can and should be kick-started now, dramatically reducing the need for humanitarian aid and migration.
Looking back to last week, and some good news: The Joint Meeting of the Finance and Programme Committees addressed the Programme of Work and Budget (PWB) for the next biennium as well as the independent assessment of FAO’s technical capacity. For the first time, the Joint Meeting endorsed the budget as proposed. By endorsing the budget level, the Joint Meeting has also approved the PWB 2018-19 proposal to increase the share of the Technical Cooperation Programme to 14 percent of the net budgetary appropriation – this means that more can be done. The independent assessment of the Organization’s technical capacity has also been finalised by the external consultants, and remains unchanged in substance, showing that technical capacity is on the rise in FAO since 2012. 
A busy few days indeed, and with the week’s fruitful visits to headquarters behind us we can look forward to the month ahead. In just two weeks, the 156th session of the FAO Council will be held in Rome – focusing on various administrative, operational, and budgetary points – along with the full cohort of meetings and side events.
Read more about the Director-General's visit to Chad here.