2023 Induction Seminar for new Permanent, Deputy and Alternate Representatives to FAO Remarks

2023 Induction Seminar for new Permanent, Deputy and Alternate Representatives to FAO

Remarks

By

Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

 19 January 2023

 

Excellences,
Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to FAO! Let me start by wishing you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2023. Tomorrow we will also be celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year – starting the Year of Rabbit.

I am pleased to be joined today by Deputy Directors-General Laurent Thomas and Beth Bechdol. Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo is currently in Berlin attending the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture 2023 (GFFA), together with the FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero. The FAO Chief Scientist, Ismahane Elouafi, is also currently on duty travel. I am also joined by Donata Rugarabamu, the FAO Legal Counsel, and Beth Crawford, the Director of Strategy, Programme and Budget (OSP). And of course by Rakesh Muthoo, the Secretary-General of the FAO Conference and Council and Director of the Governing Bodies Servicing Division (CSG). I invite you to contact any member of my team across the Organization to provide any assistance and support you may need to effectively carry out your work.

In line with the “new normal”, we are meeting today in hybrid mode. The new Digital FAO is able to provide high-tech platforms for hybrid meetings that offer flexibility and increased efficiency and effectiveness in our working methods – FAO is now fully digital, and fully transparent with all information available digitally. This helps us to be even more effective and efficient.

This annual Induction Seminar is important to open the lines of communication between Management, the Secretariat and the Membership of the Organization. FAO is a big family, and you are part of that family now – working together as ONE FAO. As I have said since taking office: we are all together on this one small planet.

Your work here in Rome is important and I look forward to your support to achieve our collective objectives: the transformation of our agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable, in support of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, and to ensure the 4 Betters: Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment and a Better Life for All, leaving no one behind.

I urge you to focus on the 4 Betters, which have been agreed upon by your Ministers for Agriculture. The 4 Betters are applicable both for the work of FAO, as well as for our personal lives. They provide a balance between material, natural and spiritual wellbeing for an overall better quality of life.

Dear Colleagues,

The Basic Texts of the Organization, the Constitution of FAO, the General Rules and the Financial Regulations are the foundations of this Organization, and guide our joint work and collaboration. We need to study them and know them thoroughly to understand FAO’s mandate, as well as our respective responsibilities. The Rules and Regulations of FAO provide the framework for achieving consensus and taking decisions that help us deliver our mission to create a better world for people, planet and prosperity.

Multilingualism is a defining characteristic of FAO, firmly rooted in the Basic Texts, and enables the effective participation of all Members in the Governance of the Organization. I have made this a priority since taking office, and have developed a corporate strategic policy framework, which was endorsed by Members last year.
During today’s seminar, the Core Leadership team will provide you with a holistic insight into FAO’s key priority areas of our work, and our vision.

I am proud today to welcome you to the new FAO - a newly renovated, restructured and dynamic FAO, fit-for-purpose to support Members in achieving a better future. A new ONE FAO that brings together all the professional and scientific expertise of the Organization from around the world, responding effectively, efficiently and coherently to the challenges we are facing together.

Following on the Year of Efficiency in 2020, the Year of Effectiveness in 2021, the Year of the Extraordinary in 2022, I have declared 2023 the Year of Excellence! Excellence is the quality of being outstanding in all that we do – and this is my personal challenge to all FAO employees, and also to you our Members. We need excellent Permanent Representatives to guide us in working with excellence to achieve excellent results! Let us work together towards achieving excellence in all our tasks.

Since I started my term of office almost 41 months ago, we have faced many challenges, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic. The FAO Crisis Management Team reacted immediately and swiftly as an agile and efficient mechanism for quick collective decision-making. DDG-Thomas is the head of this Team and provided effective leadership during these challenging times. During this time, FAO demonstrated its extraordinary crises response capacity and ability to continue working and delivering on FAO´s mandate, despite the many difficulties.

At the global level, FAO continued to provide leading analytical information based on science and evidence-based data. In spite of the strict COVID-19 measures in place, we successfully hosted the Pre UN Food Systems Summit in late July 2021 here at FAO headquarters, with the strong support of the Government of Italy that ensured the safety of all participants.

FAO continues to be at the forefront of global efforts to address global food security, leveraging its leadership role and strengths as the UN specialized agency in food and agriculture. In emergencies, FAO saves lives, safeguards livelihoods and lays the foundations for resilience, implementing emergency interventions in over 70 countries.

Over the past 40 months, FAO has stepped up efforts to contain the spread of plant diseases and mitigate the devastating consequences of the Desert Locust crisis. Through the Global Action for Fall Armyworm Control crop losses declined by 5 to 10 percent, and the risk of further spread and infestation has also decreased.

FAO has also sharply increased mobilization of voluntary contributions reaching 1.6 billion US dollars in 2022, which reflects the confidence and trust of resource partners in FAO’s ability to deliver high quality, large-scale development programmes requiring specialized technical expertise. DDG-Bechdol has successfully led these efforts.

As I had undertaken to do in 2019 when I was elected, over the past 3 and half years I have launched a series of important coherent initiatives, such as the Hand-in-Hand Initiative. A mechanism for bringing diverse actors together to help the least advantaged Members reduce poverty, end hunger and malnutrition, and reduce inequalities within and among countries – with 59 countries currently participating.

The recent Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum held in the context of the World Food Forum 2022, provided, for the first time, a platform for Members to present their investment opportunities to partners and stakeholders, for a total value of more than USD 3 billion, affecting 6 million direct beneficiaries and 9 million indirect beneficiaries.
Science and innovation – the second pillar of the World Food Forum - are critical to finding solutions to the climate challenges we are facing today. That is why we are implementing our two new thematic strategies on Science and Innovation, and on Climate Change, in synergy.

The third pillar is the youth. Women and Youth are at the forefront of my vision of the new FAO. Upon taking office, I established the FAO Women’s Committee, and the FAO Youth Committee to prioritize women and youth. So far, we are the only UN Specialized Agency to have established such committees.

Other key initiatives include the Green Cities Initiative, the 1000 Digital Villages Initiative and the One Country One Priority Product Initiative, among many others, all aimed at improving agricultural production, the digitalization of agriculture to ensure inclusivity, and ensuring the sustainability of the agrifood sector. My colleagues will brief you further on some of these key initiatives.

The FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 includes accelerators on innovation and technology, and each of the 20 Programme Priority Areas (PPAs) are underpinned by science. The new FAO Science and Innovation Strategy will enable us to step up our efforts to address the urgent, complex and interlinked challenges facing our agrifood systems, by driving a new business model at FAO.

The recently held 171st Session of the FAO Council recognized the strategic importance of integrated water resources management for food security and climate resilience, and endorsed “water resources management for the 4 Betters” as the theme for the 43rd Session of the FAO Conference to be held in July this year, as well as the biennial theme 2024-25.

To ensure optimal support to Members, the Organization needs a modern and efficient Decentralized Offices network. The reorganization of capacities within the structures of the Regional and Subregional Offices is ongoing following the new headquarters’ model, and will soon include the Country Offices.

Dear Friends,

During this Year of Excellence, I am counting on your support to make this year count. We cannot do it alone. FAO is your Organization, and we need to work together with strong commitment and passion to achieve greatness. My door is always open to listen to your proposals for further improving the way we think together, learn together, work together and contribute together. I look forward to working hand in hand with you in the coming years, for a peaceful and better world.

Thank you.