23 September 2013, New York: Fijian Prime Minister Josaia V. Bainimarama met today with the Director-General of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Dr. Jose Graciano da Silva of Brazil.
The Prime Minister welcomed the Director-General to the G77 offices at the UN and expressed his pleasure at being able to meet with him. The Prime Minister thanked the FAO for its technical cooperation with Fiji, and discussed with the DG progress in the agricultural census being conducted in Fiji, the implementation of voluntary guidelines, and the assistance rendered by the FAO to support the recovery of agricultural livelihood systems following the destruction wreaked by Cyclone Evan in 2012.
The Director-General complimented the Prime Minister for Fiji being one of the countries which had managed to halve the number of hungry people over three years before the 2015 deadline set in the Millennium Development Goals. He said that this achievement was certainly something to be commemorated. The Director-General further discussed the work the FAO is doing in trying to create South-South cooperation synergies between Brazil’s sugar research institute and the Fijian sugar industry.
In his capacity as Chair of the Group of 77 and China, the Prime Minister reiterated the importance to the Group of addressing food security and the moving towards sustainable agriculture as key tools to eliminate poverty. He stressed there was a need to look beyond the MDGs by including food security and sustainable agriculture in the elaboration of the Sustainable Development Goals. He thanked the Director-General for the cooperation between the FAO and the G77 in discussions thus far on the Sustainable Development Goals and more broadly the post-2015 development agenda. It was agreed that the Chair of G77 would arrange a special ambassadorial meeting in November in New York to allow the Director-General a briefing and hold discussions on these important matters.
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