The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Subregional Office is pleased to welcome Eriko Hibi to Samoa as the Subregional Coordinator for the Pacific Islands.

Ms Hibi joins the Subregional Office following three and a half years as FAO Representative in Syria. Ms Hibi arrived on 28 August from Damascus, Syria, where she managed FAO's humanitarian and resilience programme as FAO Representative since March, 2013.

“I’m honoured for the opportunity to serve in the Pacific after three and a half years in Syria managing FAO's humanitarian and resilience programme”. Said Ms Hibi. “Although the Pacific is very different from Syria, the region has important and urgent issues that require immediate action, such as climate change, sustainable natural resources management, food security and nutrition.”
For that reason FAO in the Pacific focuses on building resilience in agriculture, including livestock, forestry and fisheries, strengthening capacity to collect and analyse information and data, and promotion of efficient value chains to enable safe, nutritious and affordable food. Ms. Hibi emphasized that “these issues of the region do not attract as much media attention, but the consequence of not addressing them today would be costly for the world.”

Prior to Syria, Ms Hibi served as Senior Strategy and Planning Officer at the Office of Strategy Planning and Resources, in FAO's Rome headquarters.

She has earned a bachelor’s degree in laws from Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, and Master’s degrees in International Relations from the University of Reading in the UK and Johns Hopkins University's Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in the USA.

Before joining FAO in 2011, Ms. Hibi had served more than 15 years in the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) at various duty stations, including Deputy Representative for Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan; Regional Programme Coordinator in the Bangkok Regional Office; and Programme Specialist in UNFPA's Humanitarian Response Unit at NY HQs.

A Japanese national, Ms Hibi is married with two children.

Ms Hibi assumes duties from Mr Gavin Wall who was FAO Subregional Coordinator for the Pacific Islands from February 2013 to September 2016.

Photo©FAO / Kevin Hadfield