WORLD FOOD FORUM 2025 Ministerial Dialogue on South-South and Triangular Cooperation Opening Remarks

Dear Honourable Ministers,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

I am so honoured to welcome all of you and especially my close friend, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China, His Excellency Han Jun.

He managed his trip specially to come here to celebrate FAO’s 80th Anniversary, with the special permission of His Excellency President Xi Jinping.

It is indeed a great honour from China.

Thank you and welcome.

For over 50 years, FAO has championed South-South and Triangular Cooperation, supporting more than 100 countries worldwide.

South-South and Triangular Cooperation is more than just a cooperation modality – it is a strategic instrument for transformation because it:

• Unlocks local knowledge;
• Drives scientific and digital innovation;
• Strengthens solidarity among communities and countries, and
• Provides timely solutions to global challenges, especially during crises.

This Ministerial Dialogue provides an opportunity for us to:

• First: share experiences and build on one another’s successes;
• Second: foster policy dialogue through an open exchange; and
• Third: explore how to further leverage South-South and Triangular Cooperation to accelerate agrifood systems transformation.

Across the globe, South-South and Triangular Cooperation has delivered tangible results, and has been an important component of FAO’s emergency response.

South-South and Triangular Cooperation continues to strengthen collaboration across the Global South, North and development partners.

Why do we say Triangular Cooperation? Because it is not only about South-South collaboration; in FAO we need collaboration between South, North, East and West, and between government and the private sector, between government officials and farmers, as well as farmers’ organizations. Because agrifood systems are not only a single sector, but a complex system.

That makes South-South and Triangular Cooperation different from other UN agencies.

Most of the specialized agencies deal with one sector, but at FAO we do not only deal with agrifood systems, but also with the rural community, which is more complicated than urban society. 

I learned from Dr Han Jun 25 years ago that in the world we have two societies: one is urban society, and one is rural society.

Rural society is more complicated than urban society.

That is why we need Triangular Cooperation – it is not only a slogan.

Countries such as Brazil, Türkiye and China have been key partners, steadily increasing their engagement with FAO.

And also in Indonesia: 40 years ago, Indonesia started selling rice because they were self-sufficient and used the money to support Africa in improving capacity. Unfortunately, this is not well documented because Indonesia was very humble. They do more, but say less.

Brazil - through the Brazilian Cooperation Agency - and FAO have reinforced a historic alliance on Trilateral South-South Cooperation and mobilized over 120 million US Dollars since 2008 to implement programmes and projects.

Türkiye - through the FAO-Türkiye Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture established in 2007 - has contributed 30 million US Dollars, sharing expertise across Central Asia.

And China - through the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Trust Fund launched in 2009. At that time the Director-General was Diouf, then Graziano and then me. I cannot take the credit! I am not that important in China – I am only one out of 1.4 billion Chinese. I am only the son of a smallholder farmer among 400 million farmers. So, I am a very humble person.

The FAO-China South South Cooperation Trust Fund has now totaled USD 130 million. Recently, President Xi Jinping launched USD 50 million support during the UNGA in 2021, which helped to transfer hundreds of adaptable agricultural technologies, training thousands of officials and benefiting millions of people.

These examples show how sharing knowledge and resources multiply impacts.

I remember, when I was the responsible Vice Minister in China, we had Triangular Cooperation, working with the Netherlands, Germany and France to support Members from African together with China. And the United Kingdom working to support Africa. This is more than just South-South Cooperation, it is Triangular with North-South Cooperation.

There are still lots of things to do more of and together!

FAO also works with Members to include South-South and Triangular Cooperation into national policies and programmes, with special focus on small-scale farmers, women, youth and vulnerable communities.

Furthermore, ourUnilateral Trust Fund modality has proven very effective with notable results in Bangladesh, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

We support unilateral funding by, for example, helping Ministries of Agriculture obtain funding from the Ministries of Finance, with support through the FAO Technical Support Mechanism.

Unilateral funding can therefore support national initiatives. For example, in Libya they established a unilateral fund to support agrifood systems.

Dear colleagues,

Our partners have unique roles, contribute in different ways, and extend across the UN system.

Beyond the UN, FAO has collaborated with research centers and academic institutions, establishing networks that drive agrifood system solutions and innovations around the world.

The Global South is home to world-class institutes and innovation centers of excellence - their scientific knowledge, technologies and innovations deserve recognition, support and scaling.

Partnerships with the private sector and foundations are also key to mobilizing resources and sustainable investments to scale up solutions,

And FAO continues to engage with them to promote responsible investment in agrifood systems.

Through the Multilateral International Fund, with the support of the South-South and Triangular Fund, we support Members to improve their feasibility studies and investment plans, and also proposals to attract more investments.

During the past five years, we managed to about USD 17.6 billion to support Members, through the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Bank, and also the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

At FAO, we say we are poor, old and big, but we do have the networks and the technical capacity needed to help Members to attract more investments.

That is our leverage. For many years, we have not made the most of this leverage, but since I reformed the FAO Investment Centre, we have gotten more support from the World Bank and other international financial institutions.

Years, years we did not use them properly. That is why we reformed the Investment Center, to get more support from the World Bank, and other financial institutes in the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As FAO marks its 80^th Anniversary, I am convinced that partnerships rooted in solidarity, mutual learning, and technology transfer are more critical than ever,

Also, because we have a new Strategy on Science and Innovation to strengthen our work.

So, it is time for us to get more Members participating in the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Programme, including India, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation, among many others.

To unlock the full potential of South-South and Triangular Cooperation, I firmly believe that we need to prioritize:

• One: Science, technology and innovation;
• Two: Agriculture and emergencies, and response;
• Three: Finance and investment; and
• Four: Diversified partnerships.

Let us continue to work more and better together, to ensure that no country is left behind.

Together, let’s accelerate South-South and Triangular Cooperation as a driver of global agrifood systems transformation, and ensure the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind.

I wish you all the best.

South-South and Triangular Cooperation is a platform, it is an approach to build real global solidarity for peace, for prosperity.

Thank you.