Intervention Norway - General Conference of FAO

Dear Excellencies, distinguished guests, colleagues,

• It is an honour to address the 44^th Conference of FAO.

• The Conference takes place in a context of growing global challenges, making the mission and role of FAO in the UN multilateral system more important than ever.

• We are only five years from 2030. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal to end hunger and malnutrition more progress is needed.

• However, Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and violent conflicts in Gaza, Middle East, Sudan, the Sahel and elsewhere, are instead creating more humanitarian suffering, starvation and food crises.

• Food insecurity is also growing due to the longer-term challenges of climate change, ocean warming and biodiversity loss, while financial resources are under pressure.

• Therefore, we need FAO to be fit for purpose, to reform and deliver on core mandates and comparative advantages, as a normative and knowledge organisation, and as an operational and humanitarian partner within the wider UN system.

Chair,

• We welcome the comprehensive approach to innovation outlined by FAO, highlighting both technological advancements, institutional innovations and policy innovation.

• In Norway, close collaboration between farmers associations and the government is a key to find sustainable solutions. To maintain agricultural production nationwide is a main priority.

• We urge FAO to promote strategies that respond to farmers’ needs, and that are grounded in a human- rights based approach, promoting gender equality, the right to food and the uptake of CFS policy guidelines.

Furthermore chair,

• Agroecology holds the potential to address climate change and the loss of biodiversity, and to support farmers as custodians of crop diversity.

• To build capacity in sustainable fisheries and ocean management is key, and we call on

FAO to continue to support members implementing legally binding international instruments in this area.

• Furthermore, we rely on FAO to continue its standard setting work within the Codex Alimentarius and be an active part of the Quadripartite partnership.

• To prevent and control zoonotic diseases and AMR it is essential to have a One Health approach and a sustainable agrifood system with improved hygiene measures and biosecurity.

• Finally, chair, allow us to be reminded that this year, the UN and FAO celebrates 80 years of working for a more prosperous, sustainable, and equitable future for all, leaving no one behind.

Thank you.