UNGA79 UN GLOBAL COMPACT High-Level Meeting on Mobilizing Private Sector Ambition and Accountability to Transform Food Systems Opening Statement

UNGA79 UN GLOBAL COMPACT High-Level Meeting on Mobilizing Private Sector Ambition and Accountability to Transform Food Systems Opening Statement

by Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

22/09/2024

Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to be here to share together with Global Compact colleagues and all of you (old friends and new friends from the private sector) my perspective and experience.

I come from a smallholder farmer background, I have 40 years of experience inside and outside China, and I have always advocated for private sector engagement.

At FAO, we now have the first ever Strategy for Engagement with the Private Sector.

Before joining FAO, I was not working for the UN but was working as a scientist.

I was working in the poorest province of China, a Muslim province, where we had to focus on eradicating poverty and hunger with all the tools we had available in our toolbox - policy investment, private sector, women, youth and digital technologies.

The government needed to create an enabling environment for policies and empower the private sector, women and youth, and use existing technologies better, as well as introducing new digital technologies.

We must now be careful not to repeat mistakes. I worked there for seven years before being appointed as Vice Minister for Agriculture.

At FAO we started a number of digital initiatives, which was a challenge for some of the older staff. Then the pandemic arrived. It was a crisis, but it was also a turning point that provided an opportunity.

I have always worked to empower the youth and women, to empower technology, and to establish trust with the private sector.

In the world there are preconditions needed, such as political stability and peace, to pave the way for decentralization and privatization.

That is the real revolutionary change.

There are so many silos in the UN - programmes, funds, etc. - too many! And too many Summits, which are not real summits but often just high-level meetings.

I am a scientist, so I am humble, and I want to learn from the private sector.

Agrifood systems are complex, and the needs in rural areas are complicated.

It is critical to change mindsets. Money is not enough. You need to be a good manager and a businessperson, to apply knowledge to technology and the creation of new products.

Thank you.