Mario Lubetkin, new FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean

08/01/2022

Santiago de Chile – The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, appointed Mario Lubetkin as the new FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Lubetkin, a Uruguayan journalist with a distinguished career, is an expert in international communication on sustainable development.

The official joined FAO in 2014 as Director of the Office of Institutional Communication, since 2015 he has headed the office of the Director-General, and in 2017 he was appointed Deputy Director-General.

“We have before us extraordinary challenges. The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, as well as other conflicts in different parts of the world, have further aggravated the already existing negative trend of increasing hunger in recent years. Just think that, since 2019, 13 million people have fallen into hunger in the region, and 4 out of 10 inhabitants live in food insecurity, according to recent reports that the FAO, together with other agencies of the United Nations, have made public. In turn, this region has extraordinary potential for the transformation of agri-food systems that could substantially improve these negative trends,” said Lubetkin upon assuming his new position at the FAO Regional Office in Santiago, Chile.

The new Regional Representative highlighted the intense support that FAO will continue to provide to the governments of the region, working jointly with other United Nations agencies, international and regional institutions, as well as with other non-governmental organizations and study centers that focus on the transformation of agri-food systems, stimulating innovation processes.

A distinguished career

Lubetkin began his professional career at the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency in 1979, and served as CEO from 2002 to 2014.

He has coordinated projects with the governments of Brazil, Spain, Finland, Italy and Uruguay, along with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

In 2012, he was appointed to the United Nations Advisory Group for the International Year of Cooperatives (IYC), and collaborated extensively with civil society and the media in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Italy, and Uruguay, among other countries.

Lubetkin has served as a senior communication consultant for various organizations in Latin America and the European Union, and for private sector entities in the United States.

Before joining FAO in 2014, Lubetkin was Professor of Communication for International and Development Relations at the IULM University of Milan, Italy, and Director of Seminars on Communication for Development at the Menéndez Pelayo University (UIMP), in Santander. (Spain).

In April 2016 he was appointed “Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana” by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella.