10th Informal Joint RBA Meeting of the FAO Council, IFAD Executive Board and the WFP Executive Board (hosted by FAO) Welcome Remarks

Thank you, Chairpersons of the RBA Governing Bodies, and, of course, our FAO ICC

My esteemed colleagues from IFAD and WFP,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning, and welcome to FAO headquarters.

I wish to begin by thanking the Independent Chairperson of the FAO Council (ICC) – my young brother Mina - for bringing us together today. It reminds me of my first Informal Meeting on 13 September 2019. At that time David Beasley was the WFP Executive Director and Gilbert Houngbo was the IFAD President. Time flies, but the core mandate and mission remain, and is even more challenging.

I thank Members for their strong engagement, and our colleagues at IFAD and WFP for their continued partnership.

At our last Informal Joint Meeting, I said that our three agencies are distinct by design, independent from FAO during the past 50 or 60 years, but interdependent by necessity.

Today, as the world around us continues to change rapidly, that conviction is even more critical. The world needs a UN system that is even more coherent, more efficient, more effective and more focused on deliverables and impact. That is why the UN needs a new UN by next year.

FAO is fully engaged in this transformation and to strengthening the RBAs.

You have the RBAs here in Rome; the GBAs in Geneva; the VBAs in Vienna; and the NBAs in Nairobi. And I challenged my American friend, Mr Tony Blinken, at that time and said “you should also encourage NYBAs – New York-based Agencies. This would make the UN more coherent - not only RBAs. We have so many BAs, and we need coherence.

This is why when I arrived, I started the Hand-in-Hand Initiative, which we designed with five layers:

First: RBAs - as it became a real brotherhood alliance. I said here on 16 April 2019. Not RBA, you said RBA. I said, “a real brotherhood and alliance.” This is the core.

The second layer is all the UN system. I said so many BAs should be coherent.

The third layer is all the related international organizations. You can imagine 80, even 50 years ago, there were not so many international organizations in alignment with the UN mandate at large. Not to mention FAO’s mandate.

There are so many international organizations now, dealing with agrifood systems and rural development. That is the third layer.

Another layer is the private sector. We need the private sector to deliver more efficiently and effectively.

And finally, the academic institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society, farmers, and farmer organizations.

These are the Hand-in-Hand Initiative core values. This is why we bring all these partners together during the week of World Food Day, which is the birthday of FAO on 16 October. Now you can trace back my strategic design:  to build up a more coherent, more efficient platform to foster more dialogue — the World Food Forum.

 So, looking back, UN system-wide collaboration is one of the Hand-in-Hand Initiatives. But of course, it is a very important one for agrifood systems and rural development, and for dealing with all the partners.

Ultimately, our collaboration is measured by what we deliver to our Members and to the farmers and consumers we serve, and is critical for food security, rural development and the SDGs - from SDG1 to SDG16, because SDG 17 is about partnerships, like the Hand-in-Hand Initiative.

It is a roadmap to implement partnerships. In partnership, you cannot play alone or within only one cycle or one sector. Scientists talk among themselves, politicians talk among themselves, and international organizations talk on their own.

That is a bigger silo. If we want to change the world, change society and change rural development, we need an open and more coherent way to bring all the partners and players together: to think together, design together, work together, and then contribute together.

If we do not think together and design together, all those ideas, projects and proposals, no matter how beautiful the name of the initiative or reform is, will lead to not so much happening.

It is just to show. There are so many gala shows in the world. They waste money and waste time.

In July, together with IFAD, WFP, and other partners across the UN system, we launched the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report 2026.

The report showed encouraging progress, with global hunger declining for the third consecutive year.

An especially big consideration has to be given to the Dominican Republic this year as they left the Hunger Map. Last year it was Brazil.

It is one small step for one country, but a big step for the world.

Their experience shows that everything is possible if you have strong political commitment and a pragmatic enabling policy, supported by people and deliverables.

Hunger is not only a food issue. Hunger is a political, social, and civilization issue.

Yet an estimated 645 million people still faced hunger in 2025, and 2.1 billion people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity.

These figures remind us that progress is possible, but that much more remains to be done.

A few months ago, I gave a special high recognition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for India's progress on food insecurity in the past 12 years. It is not easy with a population of 1.4 billion people. How many people are there in Europe? One third of India’s. You have so much money, so many talented people, so much innovation, but you still have hunger. What you can do is to show your strong political commitment to people, to farmers, to consumers. If India can do it, no other country should have excuses not to do it.

FAO will continue to provide the necessary data, evidence, policy support, and technical expertise, and foster strategic partnerships to accelerate agrifood systems transformation and progress towards the SDGs. Even beyond the SDGs in 2030 - 2030 is approaching fast, there is not a long time to go, we only have four years!

We will also continue to strengthen forecasting, early warning and anticipatory action, working with Members and partners to improve preparedness and resilience.

That is why we appreciated Liberia’s support to FAO in establishing a Situational Room here at FAO headquarters, which is connected online, and in real time you can access anticipatory data from your capital without having to come physically to FAO headquarters. And then you can share your situation there through our platform - the Geospatial platform.

The FAO-WFP Joint El Niño Anticipatory Action Appeal, launched in June, is a concrete example of how we can combine our respective capacities and act before predicted shocks become humanitarian disasters.

Dear Colleagues,

At our last meeting, you asked us to be more concrete, you asked for greater clarity on our respective roles, and you asked us to reduce overlap and duplication, improve efficiency and increase our collective impact.

We have been putting this into practice in areas such as procurement, where joint tenders and shared agreements help generate efficiency gains.

And, for example, in 2025 FAO realized USD 4.6 million in cost avoidance, with more than 80 percent generated through common administration services.

In addition, the RBA Blueprint provides a practical framework for “smarter” collaboration in fragile settings.

Over the past three months, RBA country teams in Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Somalia and South Sudan have conducted reviews of their portfolios together.

They have identified gaps, overlaps and opportunities for stronger alignment, and agreed on concrete actions based on the comparative advantages of each agency.

Next year, FAO and IFAD will celebrate 50 years of collaboration through the FAO Investment Centre, working together to translate our shared ambitions into investible country programmes to fight rural poverty, and deliver growth, resilience and jobs for rural communities.

The scale of investment required to transform agrifood systems goes well beyond the resources of any single institution.

Also, we had a very good meeting with the new Director responsible for humanitarian affairs and development at the State Department of the United States of America a few months ago. He encouraged us to have more concrete projects, and proposals designed together. It was a good meeting.

In 2024–25, the FAO Investment Centre supported 44 IFAD projects worth more than USD 6.3 billion - combining expertise and financing to achieve greater scale and impact.

We are doing, we are moving. It is good when you are forced to do something sometimes.

When you have money, you do not know how to do it, and then you cross borders. That is a big, big problem, created by donors who encourage you to cross borders.

I really like the fact that you are now asking all the agencies, not only the RBAs, to focus on our core mandate.

When I arrived here, I always respected the agency’s core mandate. I also asked my Colleagues – Deputy Directors‑General, Assistant Directors‑General, Directors, to restrict FAO, our staff – to focus on our core mandate.

You cannot save the world with only one organization.

You have to work on your comparable advantage, and then to share with other agencies to play a complementary role.

That is real collaboration.

Dear Colleagues,

FAO remains committed to RBA – or VBA, GBA, NBA and NYBA – collaboration.

Take a broader view; look at the bigger picture – then you will see how we can improve ourselves.

We are from smallholder farmers, but we have to look at the other side of the mountains – it belongs to another village. If I had not done this, I would not have come to Rome.

I have always tried to find a way to climb the mountains, and I reached the other side of the mountains.

And that is a way to be more open, to build a new domain, to look at the world with your own perspective.

Let us continue to turn our complementarity into greater efficiency - from Rome to the field.

That is what I said when I delivered my thank you speech here seven years ago. It is not about coming to Rome, it should be about going from Rome to the field!

Let’s do it!

Thank you so much!