Readout of the Director-General’s bilateral meeting with the President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Buenos Aires – FAO Director-General QU Dongyu met with the President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, on the sidelines of the 7th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
President Lula expressed his satisfaction for meeting the FAO Director-General, noted the high importance of fighting hunger and ensuring food security worldwide and asked about the changes in FAO over the last years.
The Director-General also conveyed his appreciation for the meeting with President Lula and provided an overview of the main changes in FAO, including: the strengthening of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) through the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture with the IAEA; the strengthened FAO Investment Centre; the endorsement of the Strategic Framework 2022-2031; the approval of three new thematic strategies (Science and Innovation, Climate Change and Private Sector); as well as the renewal and modernization of FAO headquarters in Rome and upgrades to various FAO offices across the world.
President Lula said that fighting hunger is his key objective and noted that in 2012 Brazil left the Hunger Map after the implementation of several public policies to tackle social inequalities, promote social protection, improve school feeding and boost the productivity and market access of family farmers. He noted, however, that hunger has increased in Brazil in recent years, and said that currently the country has around 33 million people suffering from it.
The two parties shared their experience with the implementation of policies to promote rural and agriculture development, as well as their ideas on how to significantly strengthen FAO-Brazil collaboration to fight hunger and promote food security, including through South-South and Triangular Cooperation, science and innovation, new technologies, family farming and healthy diets.
They noted the importance of transforming global agrifood systems to produce more with less in a sustainable and resilient way, and to promote the availability accessibility of food globally.