Director-General addresses Joint Meeting of FAO Programme and Finance Committees
Director-General QU Dongyu addresses a joint session of the FAO Programme and Finance Committees, alongside Maarten de Groot.
©FAO/Giuseppe Carotenuto
03/11/2025
Rome – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has shown its commitment to providing value for money and operational efficiency in pursuit of its core mandate, Director-General QU Dongyu said Monday in his opening address to the Joint Meeting of the FAO Programme and Finance Committees.
“The world needs a sustainable and professional FAO that continues to lead in technical expertise based on science and innovation,” Qu said in a call for support of his proposals for a strengthened and more impactful Organization. “The challenges of global food security demand from us not just vision, but decisive and well-resourced action.”
The Director-General addressed a joint session of the 141st Session of the Programme Committee and the 206th Session of the Finance Committee, bodies that provide recommendations to the FAO Council on matters related to the Programme of Work and Budget of the Organization. Synergy between the two committees – one that articulates the ambitions of Members and the other that catalyzes the resources required to implement them, “is the engine of our effectiveness,” he added.
The committees, led respectively by Maarten de Groot from Canada and Jujjavarapu Balaji from India, are meeting all week to discuss a variety of issues, including changes in the international funding landscape.
Shared goal is a right, not a dream
FAO and its Members are united by a fundamental, non-negotiable goal: a world where every person in every country has enough safe and nutritious food to live a healthy and active life, Qu said. “This is not a distant dream; it is a basic human right.” Adequate and strategic resources are the “absolute bedrock” upon which the path to this right is paved, he added.
Around one of every eight people in the world today suffer from hunger, according to FAO’s latest SOFI flagship report.
The Director-General outlined a variety of actions FAO has taken to cope with shrinking resources provided by traditional donors. These include staff downsizing, digital productivity initiatives, intensified collaboration with multilateral institutions and private-sector partnerships, enhanced portfolio planning to increase predictability and mitigate the risks of sudden-stops in programme support, and flexible funding that raises FAO’s agility and effectiveness in serving country needs. At the same time, he noted how FAO has increased its support of areas prioritized by Members, including Codex Alimentarius and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC).
In his statement, the Director-General also highlighted recent efforts to ensure that FAO provides a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace. In March, FAO issued a new unified policy on harassment, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination, consolidating previous frameworks and, for the first time, treating discrimination as a distinct form of misconduct. In 2025, FAO has also marked a major milestone in digital transformation with the launch of HR CertusCare, the Organization’s first AI-powered HR chatbot and the preparation of the first Avatar Virtual HR Colleague.
Walking the talk
The Programme of Work and Budget (PWB) for 2026-27, entailing a reduction in inputs as approved by the FAO Ministerial Conference in July 2025, “was not an easy task, but we did it, a reflection of how we walk the talk,” Qu said.
The purpose of this week’s committee meetings is “to align our strategic ambitions with the practical means to achieve them,” he said.
But it’s time to move beyond the idea that cuts can be made without damaging capacity. Investments in reducing hunger is one of the most critical investments in global stability, economic prosperity and human dignity available today, the Director-General said, adding: “The question before us is not if we should allocate resources, but how strategically and how courageously we can do so.”
“The world needs a sustainable and professional FAO that continues to lead in technical expertise based on science and innovation,” Qu said in a call for support of his proposals for a strengthened and more impactful Organization. “The challenges of global food security demand from us not just vision, but decisive and well-resourced action.”
The Director-General addressed a joint session of the 141st Session of the Programme Committee and the 206th Session of the Finance Committee, bodies that provide recommendations to the FAO Council on matters related to the Programme of Work and Budget of the Organization. Synergy between the two committees – one that articulates the ambitions of Members and the other that catalyzes the resources required to implement them, “is the engine of our effectiveness,” he added.
The committees, led respectively by Maarten de Groot from Canada and Jujjavarapu Balaji from India, are meeting all week to discuss a variety of issues, including changes in the international funding landscape.
Shared goal is a right, not a dream
FAO and its Members are united by a fundamental, non-negotiable goal: a world where every person in every country has enough safe and nutritious food to live a healthy and active life, Qu said. “This is not a distant dream; it is a basic human right.” Adequate and strategic resources are the “absolute bedrock” upon which the path to this right is paved, he added.
Around one of every eight people in the world today suffer from hunger, according to FAO’s latest SOFI flagship report.
The Director-General outlined a variety of actions FAO has taken to cope with shrinking resources provided by traditional donors. These include staff downsizing, digital productivity initiatives, intensified collaboration with multilateral institutions and private-sector partnerships, enhanced portfolio planning to increase predictability and mitigate the risks of sudden-stops in programme support, and flexible funding that raises FAO’s agility and effectiveness in serving country needs. At the same time, he noted how FAO has increased its support of areas prioritized by Members, including Codex Alimentarius and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC).
In his statement, the Director-General also highlighted recent efforts to ensure that FAO provides a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace. In March, FAO issued a new unified policy on harassment, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination, consolidating previous frameworks and, for the first time, treating discrimination as a distinct form of misconduct. In 2025, FAO has also marked a major milestone in digital transformation with the launch of HR CertusCare, the Organization’s first AI-powered HR chatbot and the preparation of the first Avatar Virtual HR Colleague.
Walking the talk
The Programme of Work and Budget (PWB) for 2026-27, entailing a reduction in inputs as approved by the FAO Ministerial Conference in July 2025, “was not an easy task, but we did it, a reflection of how we walk the talk,” Qu said.
The purpose of this week’s committee meetings is “to align our strategic ambitions with the practical means to achieve them,” he said.
But it’s time to move beyond the idea that cuts can be made without damaging capacity. Investments in reducing hunger is one of the most critical investments in global stability, economic prosperity and human dignity available today, the Director-General said, adding: “The question before us is not if we should allocate resources, but how strategically and how courageously we can do so.”