FAO Liaison Offices in Geneva and Brussels join hands to brief non-Rome based representatives, ahead of the 165th Session of the FAO Council.

20/11/2020

18 November 2020, Geneva – FAO Liaison Offices in Geneva and Brussels joined hands to invite Ambassadors and Permanent Representatives from non-Rome based Delegations, in Europe, for an informal briefing on the 165th Session of the FAO Council to be held from 30 November to 4 December. Attending the meeting were accredited Member States to the FAO Liaison Offices from Geneva, Brussels, Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid and Lisbon.

In his welcoming remarks, Mr. Ahmad Mukhtar, Officer-in-charge of the FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations (Geneva) welcomed the participants and highlighted the importance of the upcoming 165^th Session of the FAO Council which will be discussing the proposed FAO’s Strategic Framework of FAO (2022-31), the Medium Term Plan (MTP) 2022-25 and the Programme of Work and Budget for 2022-23.

In the opening remarks, Mr. Rodrigo de Lapuerta, Director FAO Liaison Office Brussels, emphasized that the FAO’s strategic framework discussions seeks to prioritize FAO’s work to support Member States towards the achievement of the SDGs and the Agenda 2030 by promoting food systems that are sustainable, inclusive and resilient.

Mr. Lapuerta noted that the proposed strategic framework is fully aligned with all the other major initiatives recently implemented by FAO namely the recently launch Food Coalition, the FAO COVID-19 Response, Hand in Hand Initiative, the flagship initiative for most vulnerable countries in prioritized some of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Least Developed Countries (LLDCs), Least Developed Small Island Developing States (SIDS), food crisis countries.

Ms. Beth Crawford, Director of the FAO Office of Strategy, Planning and Resources Management (OSP) provided a very detailed overview of content, the process and of the ongoing discussions on the proposed FAO’s Strategic Framework of FAO (2022-31) and the Medium-Term Plan (MTP) 2022-25. Ms. Crawford also shared different perspectives from the discussions held during the meetings of the Finance and Programme Committees held last week.

Guided by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly SDGs 1, 2 and 10 and built around the narrative of the Food Systems Summit and FAO “4’s better” - Better production, Better nutrition, Better environment and a Better life for the future - the Strategic Framework is an important document and an important process that is ongoing right now at FAO. The discussions on the proposed strategic framework are taking place in a very inclusive format during 2020 and 2021 and led by its Member States. The results of the strategy which will guide the organizations’ work for the next decade will be presented to the FAO Conference next July 2021.

Ms. Crawford noted that the strategy document builds upon a new momentum in the FAO since the arrival of new Director-General. Our approach is now more modular, flexible, efficient and cross sectoral that is feeding through in a way to develop programmes which we will be focusing for next decade. “Increasing efficiently and breaking siloes, by reducing bureaucracy, improving flexibility are some of the new strategy to respond to emerging needs, an important request from Member States”, she underscored.

“We will have risks and uncertainties in our future. We have unknowns which we need to be able to respond flexibly”, said Ms. Crawford. The way that the FAO has set up its COVID-19 programme response programme “is a good example of how we can organize ourselves flexible to respond to emerging needs”, she underscored.

Innovative approaches are very key for FAO. A new Office for Innovation was established, and a Chief Scientist is starting as of today, she informed. Important efforts are also being made to strengthening partnership and “all types of partnerships as we need to work as one to support SDGs at country level”, she said. FAO is acting very broadly on the issue of partnerships with UN Agencies, financial institutions, private sector, producers’ organizations, academic associations and civil society organizations.

“FAO has provided us with a tree approach, in reference to the proposed strategic framework, but the soil, fertilizer and water is now to be provided by the Member States”, said Mr. Mukhtar in thanking the FAO Director for her very insightful presentation on the strategic framework.

Sharing the Geneva perspective, Mr. Mukhtar also said that a lot of discussions on trade, food standards, private sector and medium and small enterprises are quite Geneva oriented topics that are gaining even greater visibility. There is a feeling that processes or the forms of discussions taking place at WTO or UNCTAD probably do not capture the linkages between the trade and food security in a comprehensive way, thus FAO can fill this gap, he said. Therefore, FAO will come up with strategic approach not only to fill the gap but also by providing more holistic solutions to Member States in the trade and food security debate.

The interactive debate with the Permanent Representatives expressed their gratitude for the excellent presentation on FAO’s strategic directions. The discussions focused on the connections between the Strategic Framework and Hand in Hand Initiative. The latter is a country based, owned and driven process, highlighted Ms. Crawford, and could enable us to quickly send out our teams, providing the data and also helping us to work in the priority programmes areas”, as they are very closed interlinked, she explained.

As a conclusion, FAO Liaison Offices in Geneva and Brussels expressed their gratitude for the Permanent Representatives for their participation in the Briefing, particularly in this very busy time of the year and reaffirmed the full support and availability of FAO offices to provide information and support to Member States.

Today’s virtual briefing builds upon previous initiatives led by FAO Geneva to accredited Member States delegations and now joined by Brussels making of it a very first and promising initiative well received by non-Rome Missions and their needs to be better informed on important meetings/milestones at the FAO and making their voices heard.