6th AU-EU AGRICULTURE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE Opening Remarks

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to FAO headquarters for this 6th AU-EU Agriculture Ministerial Conference. I am so pleased to host you at a time when renewed dialogue, solidarity and multilateralism are more urgent than ever before.

Your presence sends a powerful message that the AU–EU agrifood systems cooperation - as one of FAO’s global partnerships - is alive, dynamic, focused, and committed to building solutions together.

This Ministerial Meeting is a clear recognition that no single country, region or continent can tackle current challenges on food security, natural disasters and rural development alone.

FAO is proud to act as an open bridge, professional platform and key partner, in this collective effort.

The FAO Strategic Framework 2022–31, structured around the Four Betters — better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life — is closely aligned with the AU Agenda 2063, the EU Green Deal and sustainable development, as well as the Post-Malabo Declaration adopted in February this year, which represents a bold recommitment by African Heads of State and Government to the principles of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme, and a renewed focus on strengthening agrifood systems as drivers of inclusive economic growth, resilience, and social stability.

This is in line with FAO’s Strategy for Engagement in Africa, launched in 2023, which calls for a territorial, country-led, and people-centered transformation of agrifood systems to make them more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable.

FAO’s Africa Strategy prioritizes five accelerators:

• First: strengthening institutions and governance;
• Second: boosting productivity and value addition;
• Third: enhancing resilience to climate and shocks;
• Fourth: empowering youth and women; and
• Fifth: enabling investment and digital innovation.
  

Together, we recognize that the transformation of agrifood systems in Africa is a strategic imperative.

It is the pathway to food security, to economic opportunity, to social stability, and to climate resilience, and it is also a foundation for regional integration, inclusive development and shared prosperity.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

FAO has been already supporting this agenda.

With the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, we have implemented nearly 200 technical advisory projects over the past 28 years.

In Morocco and Tunisia, we helped unlock investment opportunities in the olive oil sector — improving certification, traceability and quality standards.

These reforms catalyzed direct investments by the Bank and are now being replicated in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on building public-private partnership that work for farmers and processors alike.

Through the Sustainable Agrifood Systems Intelligence Initiative, we support country-level transformation based on robust agrifood systems diagnostics conducted in 49 countries.

In Sierra Leone, we’ve supported the government’s Feed Salone Initiative, combining inclusive value chain design, rice policy reform, and climate finance.

We are also advancing the Global Sustainable Cocoa Initiative in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and Ghana, focusing on traceability, livelihoods and deforestation-free supply chains, among others.

Through Agri-Intel, FAO supports the European Commission in making evidence-based agrifood investment decisions.

Since 2018, over EUR 200 million in blended EU finance has mobilized nearly EUR 530 million in private investments, including EUR 374 million in Africa in 2024 alone.

These investments — such as a maize processing facility in Burkina Faso or support for organic fertilizer systems in Senegal — create jobs, strengthen value chains and expand opportunities for youth and women.

We are also forging new partnerships with financial institutions.

With the European Investment Bank, we helped unlock a USD 20 million credit line for smallholder lending in Ethiopia.

And through the TERRA Programme, co-designed with Italy’s CDP Development Bank and backed by the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus, we are preparing to channel USD 110 million to agrifood SMEs in Africa, with FAO providing demand-driven technical support to accelerate the development of sustainable agrifood systems through capacity building and access to innovative financing.

In addition, thanks to the engagement with Italy, we are implementing projects under the Green Cities Initiative together with ten cities in five African countries: Algeria, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mozambique and Uganda.

In the FAO-EU Strategic Convergence Document we highlighted the operational tools that we can propose to strengthen cooperation between Europe and Africa via FAO for agrifood systems transformations.

On the public investment side, FAO’s Investment Centre supported the design of 18 new projects in Africa in 2024, totaling USD 3 billion in collaboration with the World Bank, IFAD, African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Green Climate Fund, working especially through the annual FAO World Food Forum.

These actions are not isolated. They form part of a coherent, growing ecosystem of support, where African priorities, European investments, and FAO’s technical leadership align to deliver systemic change.

This ecosystem directly supports the Post-Malabo ambitions:

• enhancing domestic food production,
• improving the local supply chain,
• increasing investment in climate-adaptative agrifood systems, and
• enabling innovation.
  

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are building momentum — but it must go further and faster. The world is changing fast, and we need to keep up with the pace!

The building blocks are in place:

• political commitment,
• strategic vision,
• financial instruments, and
• implementation mechanisms. 

FAO is committed to continue strengthening this tripartite partnership and to translating joint ambition into measurable, meaningful and tangible results.

The future of Africa’s agrifood systems is not only Africa’s business – it is central to global resilience, equity, and sustainability.

Let us design together and deliver together.

Let us collaborate together and contribute together – for a better future for all across Africa, Europe and beyond.

Thank you.