174th Session of the Council Opening Statement
by Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
04/12/2023
174th Session of the Council
Opening Statement
By
Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
4 December 2023
Independent Chairperson of the Council
Members of the Council
Excellences,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Colleagues,
Good morning from Rome.
This is the first Council Session since my re-election and it is significant because it will kick-off the next phase of our journey together as we progress from the first term founded on the Four Es - V1.0: Efficiency, Effectiveness, Extraordinary and Excellency, to the Four Rs - V2.0”: Recovery, Reform, Rebuild and Renaissance.
This Council Session will consider the Adjustments to the Programme of Work and Budget (PWB) 2024-25, for which the Ministerial Conference in July approved the budget level.
The Adjustments will further refine and define the way forward prioritizing key areas of work to enable us to better support Members in addressing the pressing global challenges affecting all of us.
Now, more than ever, we need to be reminded that we are all together on this small planet: what happens in one part of the world, affects all of us in every part of the world.
Ongoing conflicts continue to afflict us. The loss of lives, especially innocent civilians, is a loss for all of us. Peace is a prerequisite for food security, and the Right to Food is a basic human right.
In addition, extreme weather conditions due to the climate crisis continue to affect many regions of the world.
All these challenges impact on food security, increasing hunger and malnutrition, impeding rural development, hampering the work of farmers, and impacting the most vulnerable, especially women and youth.
Empowering youth and women are not “a Choice”, but “a Must” for agrifood systems transformation and sustainable rural development, to facilitate achievement of the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31, and to accomplish FAO’s mission.
The PWB 2024-25, along with its Adjustments, is a continuation of my vision of building a dynamic and modern FAO for a better world.
I have just returned from the COP28 in Dubai where I emphasized that global agrifood systems are the climate solution because, when transformed, they will be able to effectively contribute to ensuring food availability, food accessibility and food affordability.
We have to produce more with less. But to achieve this, we need enabling policies to close the investment gap to ensure that climate finance is increased and reaches those who need it most, especially smallholder farmers.
I was pleased that the first day of COP28 was marked by an historic agreement on the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund to help vulnerable countries deal with the impacts of climate breakdown.
The FAO Report on “Loss and Damage in Agrifood Systems”, launched at COP28, is a timely and crucial first step in quantifying the contribution of climate change to losses and damages.
On 10 December, at COP28 FAO will also launch the FAO “Achieving SDG2 without breaching the 1.5C threshold: A Global Roadmap”, which sets out how the agrifood sector can align with the Paris Agreement target, while being climate-resilient and addressing nature and food security goals.
Currently, 735 million people are suffering from hunger, and the 2023 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report projects that around 600 million will still be facing hunger in 2030.
We need an innovative plan and a concrete package of solutions to transform our agrifood systems to achieve zero hunger and accelerate climate actions, and the FAO Global Roadmap aims to support this process.
FAO’s participation and contribution to the work of the COP process is an integral part of the implementation of the FAO Strategy on Climate Change 2022–2031 and its Action Plan for the period 2022–2025.
The first reporting on the implementation of the Strategy and its Action Plan will be presented to Members in May 2024, as part of the Programme Implementation Report.
Prior to COP28, I traveled to London for the Global Summit on Food Security on 20 November. My message to the Summit was clear: harnessing the power of science and innovation is key for food security and nutrition, and the foundation for progress and innovation.
On 14 November, I participated in the UN Secretary-General’s meeting with UN SDG Principals and Resident Coordinators where we discussed the key transitions for the SDGs.
On the same day, here at FAO headquarters we hosted the Global Forum for Animal Feed and Feed Regulators that highlighted the need to make the sector more responsive to a growing global demand for animal source foods, while contributing positively to livelihoods and the environment.
The Global Forum followed on the Global Conference on Sustainable Livestock Transformation held in September this year back-to-back with the Global Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization.
In October, FAO convened the Global Symposium on Soils and Water, together with the 2nd Rome Water Dialogue, which provided a global platform to discuss the solutions for the integrated management of soil and water and was an important follow-up to the UN Water Conference held at the end of March this year.
On 6 November, we launched the 2023 edition of The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) Report that focuses on “Revealing the true cost of food to transform agrifood systems”.
It is critical that we uncover the true impacts of agrifood systems for better informed decision-making. This year’s report introduces True Cost Accounting to uncover the hidden impacts of on the environment, health, and livelihoods.
This year we also launched our new flagship publication on the Impact of Disasters on Agriculture and Food Security 2023, which provides a timely and comprehensive overview of how disasters are affecting agriculture and food security around the world.
In our emergency responses to the disasters, we continue to see that the right combination of interventions and greater investments in the agricultural sectors can make a real impact on acute food insecurity.
In Afghanistan, through a range of measures, including the supply of wheat seed and fertilizer, livestock feed and animal vaccines, among others, the situation of over 2.4 million people has improved in the pre-harvest period, with the numbers improving even further since April 2023.
The critical situation in Gaza remains a major concern. We remain committed to continue to scale up assistance to those most in need, taking all necessary measures to do so within our mandate, focusing on emergency agriculture assistance.
To address the potential impact of the war on livestock, which are nearing starvation and may cause a public health risk, as circumstances permit, we will work to ensure fodder and time critical agriculture inputs arrive to avoid animal deaths and constraints to food production capacity.
In Ukraine, in 2023 FAO delivered emergency agricultural support to more than 145 000 rural households across 13 oblasts most affected by the war, with a mix of vegetable seeds, poultry packages, livestock feed, cash transfers and other support. FAO has also supported 6000 larger scale farmers with value chain support.
To boost action ahead of El Niño, FAO launched an Anticipatory Action and Response Plan to support the most at risk populations - prioritizing action in 34 countries across Eastern and Southern Africa, Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean.
We are supporting communities in the Dry Corridor of Central America and Southern Africa to deal with these drought impacts with water harvesting, drought tolerant crop seeds, soil conservation and veterinary supplies.
Flexible funding remains critical for FAO to support Anticipatory Action’s through the Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation Activities (SFERA).
Since the last session of Council, FAO hosted, and I participated in, a number of key international fora, in line with FAO’s mandate, which included:
A high-level UN Townhall Meeting held in New York on 10 July during the 2023 High-Level Political Forum, where I outlined 6 actions needed to transform agrifood systems ahead of the 2023 SDG Summit in September.
That same week, in New York, we launched The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) Report 2023.
The UNFSS+2 Stocktaking Moment under the leadership of UN Secretary-General and the Italian Government, held at FAO headquarters, built momentum for implementation of national food system transformation pathways, and brought together all partners to report on progress and commit to bolder action.
From 29 July to 2 August, I initiated a joint visit to South Sudan, together with the President of IFAD and the Executive Director of WFP, as a concrete example of our joint work in supporting South Sudan move from a humanitarian approach to a focus on development, consolidated through the signing of an updated MOU to guide our collaboration.
In early September, the International Conference on Food Security in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, co-organized with the technical support from FAO, and held back-to-back with the 1st Uzbekistan Agrifood Investment Forum, where I joined world leaders to discuss concrete actions to unlock both public and private investments and repurpose agricultural subsidies.
In Cuba, in mid-September I attended the G77 + China Summit, where once again the critical role of science, technology and innovation for agrifood systems transformation was highlighted.
In the next biennium, the establishment of a new Office of Youth and Women would continue strengthening FAO’s capacity to better serve its Members through advocating for youth and women.
The Office would help ensure that youth and women act as channels, both internally by supporting women and youth career enrichment, and externally by gathering innovative ideas and approaches from youth and women, in line with FAO’s mandate.
As an Office, it would have a cross-cutting function within the Organization to ensure that youth and women are effectively mainstreamed across all of FAO’s work and take forward and further institutionalize the work of the FAO Youth Committee and the FAO Women’s Committee, which have been operating and delivering since 2020, but without a structural home in the Organization.
The Office would also engage with relevant global initiatives, the UN wide system and other partners, further enhancing advocacy for and engagement of youth and women in agrifood systems.
We will continue to strengthen partnerships, including through the establishment of regional Knowledge Hubs, which will have distinctive features and complementary functions and will be hosted in countries that have specific knowledge and tools to offer both regionally and globally.
A modern and efficient FAO Decentralized Offices Network is key to support countries in achieving the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs through the Four Betters.
Following the restructuring of Regional and Subregional Offices in 2022, the Decentralized Offices now need to position themselves strategically within the UN system.
To address the evolving context and the challenges and gaps identified, discussions will take place during the 2024 Regional Conferences on further measures to better reflect country contexts.
In preparation for the Regional Conferences, I have convened, for the first time in FAO’s history, a meeting of all FAO Representatives from all five FAO Regions in Rome next week to develop a concrete action plan to strengthen the network and capacities.
In line with the Call for Action launched at the High-Level Ministerial Event in June 2023, FAO will increase its support to SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs by building adaptive capacities and responding to specific needs through resource mobilization, and a global collaboration network.
At the last session of Council, Members highlighted the critical role of Blue Transformation in maximizing the contribution of aquatic food systems to sustainably nourish and feed a growing population, and we will continue to prioritize Blue Transformation as a key contributor to global food security challenges.
The first ever global normative Guidelines for Sustainable Aquaculture were endorsed by the Committee on Fisheries’ Subcommittee on Aquaculture in May this year, providing clear direction and specific actions for aquaculture to enhance its contribution to food security and poverty alleviation.
Forests are key to addressing multiple global challenges and FAO continues to support Members through the mobilization of technical expertise and finance.
For example, this year FAO provided its technical support to the Republic of the Congo, in collaboration with other UN System organizations and partners, for the Three Basins Summit on Biodiversity Ecosystems and Tropical Forests held in Brazzaville in October 2023.
We continue to strengthen our partnership on the Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme with the secured additional support from the EU for phase 2 of 26.8 million US Dollars.
Looking at the Africa’s Drylands, we have been moving forward together with the AU Commission and the Pan African agency of the Great Green Wall, to scale up FAO’s support in restoring production systems and livelihoods with the objective of restoring 100 million hectares by 2030 in the Sahel.
Since the last session of Council, we have mobilized an additional 28 million US Dollars through projects in collaboration with our financial partners to continue supporting Sahel Great Green Wall countries and communities.
To date, the Green Cities Initiative has provided support to over 100 cities globally, including 23 cities across Africa and 50 cities across the Latin America Region, and we have developed a Green Cities Regional Action Programme for Africa prioritizing 26 cities for further action in 9 countries, which includes projects for a total value of 35 million US Dollars.
The Mountain Partnership Secretariat, hosted by FAO, has facilitated a global, voluntary framework to support the implementation of the Five Years of Action for the Development of Mountain Regions 2023-2027, proclaimed by the UN General Assembly.
The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) initiative, launched by the United States in partnership with FAO and the African Union in January 2023, aims to boost agricultural productivity and nutrition by developing diverse, climate-resilient crop varieties and by building healthy soils.
FAO's ongoing work on One Health has focused not only on zoonosis and AMR, but also on the safety of food, and the health of plants, soil, the environment, and ecosystem.
In the recently launched Pandemic Fund, FAO will support over 12 projects spanning 20 countries in all 5 FAO regions in collaboration with partners.
FAO's Emergency Centers for Transboundary Animal Diseases has expanded from supporting 37 countries in January 2022 to 49 countries in December 2023, supporting Members to improve animal health and One Health capacity, and strengthening the resilience of agrifood systems to global health threats.
Led by FAO, within the framework of the Quadripartite, the first plenary meeting of the AMR Multi-Stakeholder Partnership took place in Rome on 15 November with more than 150 partners from around the globe, to collectively identify ways of preserving antimicrobials as lifesaving medicines for humans, animals, plants and ecosystems, using the One Health approach.
FAO is already working in towards the UNGA High Level Meeting on AMR in 2024 declaration to effectively shape our collective work on AMR in the coming years.
Today, we will launch the UNGA declared 2024 International Year of Camelids, which aims to raise awareness of the contribution and potential of camelids to improve livelihoods, food security and nutrition, and culture of communities across the world, including Indigenous Peoples.
The UNGA had also declared 2023 the International Year of Millets, as a call to action on the potential of these crops, and to create innovative market opportunities for many countries, to benefit farmers and consumers.
FAO recognizes that millets are not just grain crops – they are an asset to our agrifood systems and to the Four Betters.
During 2023 we have supported Members who have identified millets under the One Country One Priority Product Initiative, and in developing more diversified, equitable and sustainable value chains for millets.
Last week, the 46th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Commission and it provided an opportunity to reflect on the successes of this important body and to look forward to increasing its support, within its mandate, to agrifood systems transformation.
In October, FAO and IAEA jointly launched the flagship initiative Atoms4Food that will support countries to apply innovative nuclear techniques in different areas, including crop improvement, animal production and health, soil and water management and food safety and control, among others.
We look forward to collaborating with the Italian G7 Presidency in 2024, and the Brazilian Presidency of the G20, together with other international fora in line with our mandate, to consolidate international support for global agrifood systems transformation and to strengthen food security strategies.
We will continue to work on the education and advocacy project of the Global Food and Agriculture Museum and Network, funded by extra-budgetary resources, to celebrate traditional heritages of food and agriculture, including through the work of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS).
Partnerships continue to be the backbone of our work.
The report on the Update on FAO’s Collaboration with other UN system entities illustrates, alongside our collaboration with IFAD and WFP, the range of partnerships that FAO engages in across the entire UN system at all levels, and their impact.
We also highlight the range of partnerships we engage in on a thematic basis, across the broad range of technical work within our mandate.
In this regard, during my visit to the United States in October 2023 on occasion of the World Food Prize 2023 event where I delivered a keynote address, I also met with the Presidents of Mississippi State University and the Iowa State University of Science and Technology to strengthen collaboration on food and agriculture through science, technology, and innovation.
Furthermore, on the margins of COP28, I signed a Letter of Intent with the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security of Italy to strengthen collaboration on climate action in agriculture in support of agrifood systems transformation.
In July, I signed a Letter of Intent with the University of Naples for collaboration to enhance resilient agrifood systems through the exchange of innovation and technology expertise in the field of agrifood science and technology advancements in Agritech.
In July, we inaugurated the FAO Global Library of Trees and Flowers as a continuation of the G20 Green Garden, in collaboration with the City of Rome, to create a unique green space in the heart of the Eternal City,
This year FAO has continued the positive trend of mobilizing voluntary contributions to achieve the goals set out in our Strategic Framework.
As of the end of November, these have reached 1.55 billion US Dollars, and the current forecast is to close the year with 1.8 billion US Dollars.
It represents the second highest level of resource mobilization in the 78-year history of FAO and reflects the confidence Members continue to place in FAO as a reliable and effective strategic partner.
FAO continues to support Members to access environment and climate finance through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
This year, the FAO-GCF portfolio has increased with 145 million US Dollars, benefiting Bolivia, Cambodia and the Philippines.
Since the launch of the GEF-8 cycle, FAO has been successful in securing 183 million US Dollars in grants, and 1 billion US Dollars in co-funding approved in June 2023.
The One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) initiative continues to support countries in the development of more sustainable food value chains of Special Agricultural Products and improved rural livelihoods.
The initiative now reaches over 40 countries thanks to contributions from various sources and shows the potential for replicating and scaling up achievements in additional countries.
By creating synergies with the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Programme, the OCOP has just received the largest single contribution of 5 million US Dollars from the Government of the People’s Republic of China, which will support capacity-building in 15 countries across the world.
Through the Hand-in-Hand Initiative we currently have 68 participating countries, among which more than 40 countries with well-designed investment plans and concrete partnerships.
We also held a successful Hand-in-Hand Initiative Investment Forum in October 2023, during the third edition of the World Food Forum, with 31 country investment plans and 2 regional initiatives presented.
More than 400 matchmaking sessions were organized, with 16.5 billion US Dollars investment needs identified around 111 value chains for 149 million beneficiaries.
The Global Youth Forum raised the importance of actively engaging youth in global decision-making processes, with a strong focus on climate action and on building a sustainable future for themselves.
The Forum awarded over 200 000 US Dollars in grants and prizes to young innovators, brought together 12 World Food Forum National Chapters, and engaged more than 1 000 schoolchildren in agrifood systems education.
In the margins of the Forum, we also hosted the UN Global Indigenous Youth Forum, acknowledging the critical role of Indigenous Peoples and small-scale farmers in agrifood systems.
It united more than 180 Indigenous Youth in person and hundreds more online, representing the 7 socio-cultural regions of the world, 98 Indigenous Peoples’ groups and 51 countries.
This year’s Science and Innovation Forum focused on how technology can help agrifood systems deal with the impacts of the climate crisis, and gathered 9000 participants, both in person and online, from 194 different countries.
The accompanying Science and Innovation Exhibition, with 12 unique displays showcased, provided a venue for more than 40 interactive talks and demonstrations of innovative approaches by FAO and its partners.
The Forum programme highlighted the role of research, in particular cutting-edge technologies, Artificial Intelligence and digital tools.
Overall, the 2023 the World Food Forum brought together more than 6 000 participants to FAO headquarters, with over 65 000 online participants, with attendees from 186 countries.
In September, the Action Plan 2022-2025 for the implementation of the FAO Science and Innovation Strategy was launched.
This is a living document which will be updated as needed to reflect new needs, opportunities, and challenges, and was developed through an inclusive and transparent consultative process, drawing on inputs and expertise from across the Organization, as well as guidance and feedback from Members.
The Office of Innovation is spearheading FAO’s efforts to develop a Global Innovation Model, based on a systematic approach and will facilitate innovations at scale.
In the next biennium, the Office will continue to be strengthened with the transfer of the Farmer Field School team, one of FAO’s most successful mechanisms to foster innovation at grassroots and local levels.
Acceleration Zones at global and regional levels will complement Innovation Hubs and Incubators in delivering the core services and enhance FAO’s capacity to leverage innovation and technology.
FAO's Agrifood Systems Technologies and Innovations Outlook (ATIO) will play a pivotal role in realizing the vision set out in the Science and Innovation Strategy and support closing the “uptake gap” of technologies and innovations.
This year continued to see an increase in my communication and outreach, with more than 200 speeches delivered in person or virtually, over 60 video messages, 400 tweets – with an increase of 11 000 followers on the FAO DG X account reaching a total of 55 000 followers (an increase of 37.5%).
In addition, 220 Readouts, over 120 OpEds, Forewords and Written Contributions, and 200 DG press releases and web stories were published.
By the end of 2023, the number of users visiting key pages on the fao.org website increased from 4.2 million in 2022 to 5.4 million – a 30% growth in one year.
On social media, FAO currently has a cumulative following of 8.2 million users across the multilingual channels - a gain of nearly 1 million additional followers this year (a 14% increase over 2022).
With regards to news and media, by the end of November 2023 approximately 470 000 online news articles citing FAO were detected – of this almost 60 000 were in the top-tier media outlets. By the end of December, this figure is foreseen to reach close to 500 000.
During the week of World Food Day and the World Food Forum, there was an increase of 2.5 million views on the FAO website, and World Food Forum products reached 2.7 billion social media accounts – with an increase of 300 million views on social media platforms.
I am so happy that we can now finally speak in billions, after just four years!
We have achieved so much together! And we can continue to achieve even more!
Let’s continue to think together, learn together, work together, and contribute together for everyone on this planet, and for the planet itself.
Thank you.