Director-General addresses closing session of FAO Programme and Finance Committees

Rome – Today the FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, addressed the closing of the Joint Meeting of the 137^th Session of the FAO Programme Committee and the 198^th Session of the FAO Finance Committee, which wrapped up a week of deliberations.

Qu welcomed the results of the discussions and recommendations that the two important FAO governing bodies will provide to the 174^th Session of FAO Council, which will meet from 4 to 8 December 2023.

Among the main outcomes, members of both committees affirmed broad and ongoing support for key FAO areas of work, including the need to strengthen programming, management and oversight, funding FAO’s scientific, evidence-based normative work and statistics, and to continue its focus on the One Health approach and on integrated water resources management.

The Director-General noted that one key takeaway was the collective view on the need to continue strengthening partnerships to achieve the Programme Priority Areas set out in FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022-2031, to support the transformation of global agrifood systems for the Four Betters, and to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Another was the importance of enhanced collaboration across the UN-wide system to “leverage joint funding mechanisms, for big team spirit, and to improve impact at the country level working as ONE UN,” he added.

The Director-General noted that “empowering youth and women is not ‘a choice’, but ‘a must’ for agrifood systems transformation and sustainable rural development.”

Qu highlighted that Efficiency, Effectiveness, Extraordinary and Excellency had been the four cardinal drivers of his first four years at FAO’s helm. For his second term (2023-27), the overarching effort are organized around Recovery, Reform, Rebuild and Renaissance within the FAO global system and network, the Director-General added.