Rome - Director-General QU Dongyu and the Swiss Confederation FAO National Committee met on 4 June 2024 at FAO headquarters in Rome. 

The 77th World Health Assembly (WHA77) was held from the 27 May to 1 June at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, focusing on the theme of “All for Health, Health for All”. The FAO Delegation to the WHA was composed of Dominique Burgeon, Director of the FAO Liaison Office in Geneva (LOG), Julio Pinto, Animal Health Officer, FAO Animal Production and Health Division (NSA), Xiaoyi Wang, Liaison Specialist, LOG, and Trudy Wijnhoven, Nutrition Officer, FAO Food and Nutrition Division (ESN). FAO contributed to discussions on various agenda items and participated in a selected number of side events.

Geneva – On the occasion of his trip to Geneva for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the Conference on AI for Good, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu signed Memorandum of Understandings with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Geneva – As part of its efforts to increase engagement with local networks and initiatives led by and for youth, the FAO Liaison Office in Geneva (LOG) took part in the “Think & Drink” May event organized by Foraus, the Swiss Forum for Foreign Policy. The monthly series aimed at an audience of students and young professionals features speakers from different organizations present in Geneva to elaborate on topics relevant to the international agenda and spark dialogue and exchange. As the theme of the event in May focused on “Food Technology in Achieving Zero Hunger”, LOG participated as a speaker to present FAO’s work on achieving SDG 2.

Geneva – FAO Director-General QU Dongyu today underlined FAO’s commitment and the wide-ranging initiatives it is implementing to support Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in transforming their agrifood systems.

Valposchiavo - The FAO Liaison Office in Geneva joined the annual meeting of the Swiss cities of Taste, as part of the Organization’s efforts to strengthen partnerships with different Swiss entities in support of the transformation of agrifood systems, especially urban ones, and to increase outreach on the impact of FAO’s work in the host country.

On the occasion of World Bee Day, FAO renewed its partnership for a third year with the UN Office at Geneva (UNOG) and the Permanent Missions of Slovenia, as well as the Mission of Kenya for the first time this year. Together, the five partners organized an event bringing together participants from the International Geneva and local constituencies. The event featured presentations of beekeeping projects from Slovenia/Kenya, Switzerland and FAO, an interactive demonstration of honey production by the association “Printemps d’abeilles” (Bees’ spring) and the Symbolic planting of melliferous and bee-friendly flowers on the grounds of the Palais des Nations. World Bee Day 2024 focused on the theme "Bee engaged with Youth," highlighting the importance of involving young people in beekeeping and pollinator conservation efforts.

Rome - Artificial Intelligence and the ongoing digital revolution will inevitably transform the world and its agrifood systems, making it all the more urgent that the transformations they drive benefit everyone and contribute to solving global challenges, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), QU Dongyu, said Friday at the Business Federations of the G7 (B7) meeting in Rome.

Rome –  While countries in Europe and Central Asia are grappling with conflict and environmental challenges, they are well positioned to pursue the sustainable transformation of agrifood systems and have already taken steps towards achieving many of the core Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, said Tuesday in remarks opening the 34th Session of the Regional Conference for Europe (ERC).

The Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW) is one of the largest humanitarian forums. It provides a unique opportunity for humanitarian stakeholders to meet and address key humanitarian issues, gathering participants from the UN, NGOs, the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, Member States, the private sector, the military, academia and beyond to discuss and solve common challenges in humanitarian affairs.

The dialogue on “Nutrition-Sensitive Social Protection across the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus” aimed to gather governmental and non-governmental stakeholders to discuss and exchange knowledge to inform a more coherent approach to social protection for food security and nutrition.

Rome – The benchmark for world food commodity prices edged higher in April, as higher prices of meat and modest upticks for vegetable oils and cereals outweighed decreases in sugar and dairy product prices, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported Friday.

New York/Rome –The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) welcomes the resolution adopted today by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly to declare 2026 as International Year of the Woman Farmer.

LOGin is a feature interview series regularly organized by the FAO Liaison Office in Geneva (LOG). Through LOGin, we meet with FAO’s leadership and discuss how FAO is supporting its members in transforming agrifood systems. In this edition, we met with Corinna Hawkes, Director of the FAO Division of Agrifood Systems and Food Safety, to discuss  FAO’s work on urban agrifood systems.

Geneva – In the context of the biweekly Geneva Press Briefings organized by the United Nations Information System (UNIS) in Geneva, the FAO Liaison Office in Geneva (LOG) regularly collaborates with UNIS to ensure agrifood system issues are on the agenda and FAO’s activities and messages are delivered to the UN-accredited journalists. In March and April 2024, five press engagement activities were rolled out to communicate about the latest updates on FAO’s works, including the new Global Report on Food Crises 2024, food crises in the Gaza Strip and Sudan and the FAO Food Price Index.

New York – In the face of intensifying El Niño and La Niña weather events, effective anticipatory action is crucial to shield and better equip communities ahead of shocks as it helps to save lives and protect livelihoods by preventing damage and losses to crops, livestock, productive lands, water and infrastructure, said Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Rome - According to the latest Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), nearly 282 million people in 59 countries and territories experienced high levels of acute hunger in 2023 - a worldwide increase of 24 million from the previous year. This rise was due to the report’s increased coverage of food crisis contexts as well as a sharp deterioration in food security, especially in the Gaza Strip and the Sudan.

Geneva and Rome -  The FAO Liaison Office in Geneva, UN Environment Programme, the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the UN in Geneva and Caritas in Veritate Foundation co-organized a hybrid dialogue on 23 April at the Palais des Nations on the key messages of the Laudate Deum, an apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis, and the outcomes of COP28 related to agrifood systems. Centered around the Laudate Deum, published in 2023 as a follow-up to the 2015 encyclical Laudato si’ on “care for our common home”, the event addressed the role that religious communities can play in driving action to address climate change.

Rabat - Hunger levels in Africa have increased in the past two years, due to lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing conflicts, the climate crisis and economic shocks, but the continent’s possibilities are vast and optimism about the opportunities that lie ahead is in order, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said today at the 33rd Session of the FAO Regional Ministerial Conference for Africa (ARC33).

Rome – Cereal production in the Sudan has been severely affected by the conflict, which erupted in April 2023, likely pushing more people into hunger - the situation requires urgent and at-scale agricultural support ahead of the planting season starting in June, Director of the FAO Office of Emergencies and Resilience, Rein Paulsen, warned.