Bilateral meeting with the Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture of Germany - H.E. Cem Özdemir

Rome - Today the FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, met at FAO headquarters in Rome with H.E. Cem Özdemir, Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture of Germany.

The Director-General welcomed the Minister and recalled the many meetings they had in the past years, and thanked Germany for their ongoing support to FAO and for being a longstanding partnership.

The Minister congratulated the Director-General with his re-election and said he looked forward to continuing working together, underlining the important role FAO plays as a UN Specialized Agency.

He indicated the increased concern farmers have globally about forest fires, droughts, floods, the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and hunger. In that regard, he indicated that for many of these common challenges Germany and FAO could work together to help the millions of people facing hunger, and mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis.

The Minister referred to the support Germany is already providing to the Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation Activities (SFERA), established in 2004 to enhance FAO’s capacity to rapidly respond to emergency situations, and indicated Germany’s commitment to increase their support for this important fund.