Director-General provides the FAO Council with updates on delivery and proposals for the way forward

Figure: Participants in FAO's 166th Council, including Director-General QU Dongyu (upper left) and Independent Chairperson Khalid Mehboob (second from left).

26 April 2021, Rome - Addressing the 166^th Session of the FAO Council today, Director-General QU Dongyu highlighted the ways the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been providing constant support to Members, including to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Each of the decisions, activities and results shared with Council today are "not an isolated exercise, but part of an interlinked chain of progress," he said.

Alluding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Director-General noted that "we are witnessing the scale of the long-term effects on agri-food systems, food security and nutrition situations around the world," pointing to adverse trends such as increasing food prices, the suspension of school meals in many parts of the world, restrictions on selling food in public urban places, jobs at risk in the processing and distribution sectors, and negative impacts in incomes, especially for rural households in mostly agricultural areas.

FAO has not only continued to assist Members but has also progressed on the "deepest transformative action at FAO since its creation", a restructuring of teams and competencies to create an agile, inclusive and transparent modern FAO with a flexible and modular structure for optimal cross-sectoral collaboration.

In that respect, the Director-General noted that "more coherent regional and sub-regional structures" are being established and Country Office capacities strengthened, "to deliver impactful results as One FAO".

The Council is the executive organ of the FAO Conference. It has 49 Members and meets between Conference which brings all 194 Members together every two years. The Council exercises functions dealing with the world food and agricultural situation and related matters, current and prospective activities of the Organization, including the Programme of Work and Budget, administrative matters, financial management of the Organization, and constitutional questions.

The full speech of the Director-General in the opening session of the FAO Council can be accessed here.

FAO Council 166 can be followed by webcast.