Bilateral meeting with the President of the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly, H.E. Philémon Yang

New York - On the margins of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, met with the President of the General Assembly (PGA) H.E. Philémon Yang in New York.

The PGA welcomed the Director-General to the 79th Session of UNGA and complimented him on FAO's critical work to transform agrifood systems in support of the advancement of peace, sustainable development, and human dignity for everyone everywhere.

The FAO Director-General congratulated the PGA on his election and noted the significance and potential of his tenure, pledging FAO's full support, and noting that supporting the Four Betters - better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind - is prioritized under the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31.

The Director-General informed of how he had reformed FAO internally, since taking office in 2019, across its structure of technical divisions at headquarters, adding dedicated Offices for SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs, for Youth and Women, and for Innovation, as well as by strengthening its network of regional, subregional and country offices globally.

The Director-General further referred to the global initiatives he had established such as the Hand-In-Hand, One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) and Digital Villages initiatives, adding that, together with the reforms introduced, they aimed to increase FAO's capabilities to support Members to transform their agrifood systems, as well as to increase the Organization's technical ability to provide support on climate change, biodiversity loss, land and soil degradation and other global challenges affecting food and agriculture, making more readily available specific expertise that responds to local conditions.

The two agreed that the already strong partnership between FAO and the Office of the President of the General Assembly should be further strengthened, considering the centrality of agrifood systems in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.