With the start of the new year comes a new Food and Agriculture Organization director-general whose priority is to renew the organization’s focus on efforts to boost global food security.
Jose Graziano da Silva, who officially assumed office Jan. 1, said he plans to meet this priority by scaling up FAO’s assistance to low-income countries facing severe food deficit as well as protracted crisis.
Integration also appears to be high on Graziano’s agenda for FAO during his term. He has proposed creating teams that will consolidate FAO’s “skills in policy advice, investment planning, resource mobilization, emergency response and sustainable development.” He also called for the integration of hunger eradication efforts into response to other global challenges.
“Hunger eradication should not be separated from responses to other global challenges, such as reviving national economies, protecting natural resources from degradation, and mitigating and adapting to climate change,” Graziano said.
Graziano was elected to lead FAO in elections held June 26 in the agency’s headquarters in Rome, Italy, but only officially assumed the post this January. He will be serving until July 31, 2015. He succeeds Jacques Diouf of Senegal, who led the agency for the past 18 years.
Read more:
Newly elected DG Jose Graziano da Silva on his vision for FAO
New FAO chief eyes more cember states’ consensus, cooperation on key issues
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