Employee Recognition Awards 2024 Opening Remarks

Dear colleagues,

Greetings from Rome! 

Welcome everyone to this year’s Employee Recognition Awards ceremony – which is being held for the sixth time - from 100% in person participation in 2019, to 100% in virtual mode in 2020, and hybrid since 2021 and now becoming the new normal! 

Today, we celebrate our 100 Young + 100 Young-at-Heart colleagues, 15 FAO Teams, as well as our 25 Year Medal recipients.

I also started for the first time a special recognition for all the brave women colleagues working in hardship field locations, based on the recommendation from the FAO Women’s Committee.

2024 marked a speeding up of the Four Rs for the FAO system:

• Recover physically and culturally;
• Rebuild efficiently and innovatively;
• Reform for improved and better delivery;
• For the Renaissance of FAO to make it more dynamic and more impactful.

Each and every one of you can contribute to the Renaissance of FAO by walking the talk and playing your part in this big team – the ONE FAO FAMILY!

As our great Organization approaches its 80th Anniversary in 2025, now is the moment to reflect on its rich history and heritage, its dynamic present, and to look to the future and how we can contribute towards an FAO that is even more fit for purpose for a better future.

Today, we celebrate our Organization’s greatest assets: our colleagues who are real game changers on specific positions.

All of you - both here at headquarters and in the field - are the engines for implementing the Strategic Framework 2022-31, and turning the aspiration of the Four Betters - better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind - into concrete and coherent action with deliverables and tangible results on the ground.

This year we have continued to think together, learn together, work together, grow together and, more importantly, contribute and collaborate together.

To recognize the contribution of all colleagues working collectively towards FAO’s noble mandate, I introduced the Employee Recognition Awards upon taking office in 2019.

Now it has become embedded tradition to celebrate, to appreciate and unite ONE FAO as an annual highlight before the New Year to come.

In the past five years, we have honoured 500 Young and 500 Young-at-Heart employees, and over 70 teams.

These awards boost morale, highlight our positives, and inspire us to continue doing even more and even better!

For the 2024 awards, over 500 nominations were received across streams, offices, and divisions, as well as offices in the field: 200 of these were selected by colleagues in the Organization-wide established practice.

Over 98 nationalities are represented from 81 duty stations. Our strength is our incredible diversity as we work together for a world free from hunger and poverty.

Today, we also give special thanks and recognition to women in hardship field locations.

In the face of conflict and humanitarian crises, women on the frontlines shoulder incredible responsibilities. 

They do not just contribute through their technical expertise, but are also deeply impacted by the turmoil.

They are community members, mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends who share the pain of their loved ones.

I want to thank these women on the frontlines of FAO’s work from the bottom of my heart.

We are also here to celebrate the important contributions of our ONE FAO Team awardees for their excellence in serving the Organization,

In recognition of their commitment and collaboration that has contributed to a more efficient, effective, extraordinary, excellent and more innovative, professional and impactful FAO.

I have personally endorsed 15 teams for their excellent work this year, the results they have achieved, their impact on the ground, and their spirit of collaboration.

When we work together, we can go further together.

We have achieved so much over the past five years, and I know we share a common commitment to continuing to do more and better, together.

Let us continue being united as ONE FAO, focused on providing service to the world’s farmers, consumers, rural communities, youth, women, and Indigenous Peoples, ensuring a global transformation of agrifood systems and sustainable rural development in support of the most vulnerable populations, leaving no one behind.

There are 200 individual awardees as representatives of FAO’s great colleagues today, but there are many more who deserve to be celebrated.

I thank ALL employees for their dedication, commitment, energy, passion and contribution.

Today, we also celebrate 28 colleagues as they mark 25 years of continuous service with the Organization - from 20 countries located in 12 duty stations worldwide.

Marking this commitment to FAO is a long-standing tradition, because 25 years of service is truly significant!

25 years is a long time in a person’s life; it is a long journey, and this ceremony is a living testament to our rich, collective history.

The Organization has evolved over the past 25 years, with accelerated changes over the past 5 years and will continue to do so as we approach FAO’s 80th Anniversary.

Those receiving a medal today have witnessed this evolution firsthand, and you have also evolved personally over the past quarter of a century.

We need to build a balanced culture across the generations.

We need young people to build the future, while not forgetting the importance of respecting our seniors because we need them to share their experiences and lessons with us.

I encourage all of you receiving the 25-year medal today to share your experience and your thoughts with the younger generations in your offices, in the cafeteria, in the field.

Dear Colleagues,

We need to respect each other like a big family, and to respect each other we need to understand each other. And sometimes if we find it hard to understand, then we need to be tolerant.

Respect, understanding and tolerance are the foundations of a conducive working culture in FAO, which is a multiple cultures Organization.

Let us enjoy the celebrations today – they are well-deserved after another year of hard work!

I wish you all a good holiday season and a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous 2025!

2025 is the Year of the Snake by the Chinese Lunar Calendar, starting on 29 January by the western calendar.

The Snake symbolizes wisdom, elegance, and transformation. It encourages personal and professional growth, focusing on long-term plans, creativity, and intuition.

This is appropriate as we look to the future, and to ensuring that our Organization is modern and well placed to better serve the people who need us the most for the next 20, 40, 60, 80 years, and beyond!

Thank you.