Interview of the Month with Corinna Hawkes, FAO Director Food Systems and Food Safety Division

This is the Interview of the Month of June with Corinna Hawkes, FAO Director of the Food Systems and Food Safety Division

Congratulations on your new assignment Corinna! New in this position but definitely not new to food and nutrition. Before asking you how do you plan to support through your work the Organization’s lead in the agrifood systems transformation agenda, let me ask you something that comes up every now and then. Why does FAO use the term agrifood systems instead of food systems?

FAO uses the term “agrifood systems” because agriculture produces products, which are not food –such as fibre (e.g. cotton), fuel (e.g. biofuels) and shelter (e.g. wood). Since FAO is a food and agriculture Organization, it is important that we consider these products as well as food, especially since producing these products has important implications for environmental sustainability and the livelihoods of the people who produce them.

One could say that indeed all of FAO’s work is about agrifood systems, so what exactly is the mandate of your office and how does it link with the Organization’s other areas of work?

Yes, collectively, all of FAO’s work is about agrifood systems. That is part of our power; but as an Organization, if we remain working as if all the parts of the system are separate from each other, we won’t fully leverage that power. The same applies externally. It is only through collective action recognizing that food and agriculture are part of an interrelated system that we will be able to leverage the full power of agrifood systems to contribute to achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals - and indeed the four betters laid out in FAO’s Strategic Plan – Better Production, Better Nutrition, Better Environment and a Better Life.  We know from the lessons of history that the transformation of agrifood systems to be more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable will only happen if we transform the way we work - from a siloed approach to a systems approach. 

So we have an important job of work to do to bring the system together. This is the mandate of the Division’s work on food systems: to catalyse the implementation of transformative outcomes in agrifood systems through providing global leadership for the shift to a systems approach, both internally and externally. In practice, this means working in partnership to drive forward the series of transformative changes needed at the global, regional, national and local level required to take this approach, including in mindsets, in institutional arrangements (e.g. governance), and in incentives (e.g. financing, policy). 

One could say: why does FAO need a technical division to do this work? Surely, it is a matter of coordination, and we already have various coordinating entities, notably the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub? In fact, the process of coordination requires a lot of knowledge and expertise. You have to have the knowledge of how the whole agrifood system works, of the breadth of the people in it and who does what, of the entry points for systemic change, of the evidence and data needed to support the transformative changes, and many other things. Having that knowledge of the big picture doesn’t just happen – it takes technical expertise. It is through this technical expertise that we will be able to contribute, including in support of the coordination work done by the Hub. 

Your division is also responsible for food safety.  FAO is the only international organization overseeing all aspects of the food chain, thereby providing a unique, 360° vision on food safety.  Can you tell us a bit about your areas of focus in the next couple of years with regards to our food safety work?

The food safety team in the Division has produced an excellent document guiding the FAO strategic priorities for food safety, which answers this question.

In brief, the FAO/WHO Scientific Advice programme for food safety will continue to be incredibly important moving forward. Our work focuses on providing timely and sound advice through various standing expert panels, such as the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meetings on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA), and the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR). This work is vital to inform the work done by the Codex Alimentarius Commission and by FAO Members.

A second priority is building the capacity of FAO Members to recognize potential food safety hazards ahead of time, and to assess and manage the associated risks. We do this by supporting them to build national food control systems.

In addition, I am really excited about our foresight work. We know that as agrifood systems change, and as new policies and practices are applied across the whole system, new food safety issues emerge. So to allow for timely decision-making, our foresight programme proactively identifies and explores emerging potential risks and opportunities for food safety.

You came to Brussels to talk at the Brussels Urban Summit. Where do you see the relevance of FAO’s contribution to the urban agrifood systems? 

The urban dimension of agrifood systems is of critical and growing importance and affects not just cities themselves, but the rural catchment areas around cities. This will be shown by this year’s flagship State of Food Security and Nutrition report released in July, on the subject of urbanisation. 

There are many fantastic people, institutions and networks working on urban agrifood systems around the world, not least municipal governments. So, FAO’s role is to empower these partners, along, importantly, with national governments, to deliver transformative change in agrifood systems along the rural-urban continuum. There are various ways we can do that: gather and communicate data and evidence on urban agrifood systems; provide evidence-informed technical support using a systems approach; support the development of cross-government, multi-stakeholder platforms; facilitate peer learning between cities and connections between national and city government; and act as strong advocates for all of this work at the city, national regional and global level. There are Divisions and Regional and Country Offices all across the Organization engaged in this urban work and I can say that the Food Systems and Food Safety Division is very committed to leading this work and engaging with external partners to make a positive difference.