The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, re-elected on Sunday for a second term at the head of the Organization, delivered today his opening statement at the 43rd Session of FAO Conference (1-7 July), in which he stressed that it is time to “rewrite the narrative on food security.”
The Conference began on Saturday 1 July with the election of Marie-Claude Bibeau, Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food, as Chairperson and the McDougall Lecture by Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore’s Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies.
In his speech to the Conference, QU Dongyu highlighted that global agrifood systems are continuously facing shocks from different dimensions, and emphasized that FAO and its Members should not only focus on the challenges, but also “find opportunities and take action to move forward.”
“We need to start the transformation!” Qu urged, stressing that agrifood systems need to urgently become more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable”
Transformative actions and robust solutions are needed “so we can move forward into a world of better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind,” the Director-General said, citing the Four Betters that he has embedded in various reforms, initiatives and programmes implemented since first taking FAO’s helm in 2019.
In the message from Pope Francis, read by by Monsignor Fernando Chica Arellano, Permanent Representative of the Holy See to FAO, the Pontiff congratulated QU Dongyu for his re-election and encouraged him to continue working “to eradicate the scourge of hunger in the world, which is advancing rather than retreating”.
“Today many experts say that the goal of zero hunger will not be met,” Pope Francis said. “Allow me to say, the inability to fulfill our responsibilities must not lead us to turn away from our original intentions.”
The drivers of food security
The Director-General focused his intervention on the concepts that define food security, noting the key drivers of availability, accessibility, utilization and stability.
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
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