All as expected. Qu Dongyu was re-elected director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The FAO assembly reserved the overwhelming majority of 168 votes out of 182 for Qu. The Chinese politician will begin his second term on August 1, 2023, and will end on July 31, 2027. The FAO statute provides for a maximum of two mandates for each director general.

Aged 59, an agricultural graduate, Qu was vice president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences from 2001 to 2011, and vice president of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from 2011 to 2015. He also served as Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2015.

Since being first elected FAO Director-General in 2019, "Qu has championed a wide range of reforms and initiatives to overhaul the Organization’s business model, improving efficiency and implementing best practices that support programme and administrative effectiveness", reads a note from the FAO.

"FAO’s transparency, visibility and reputation has continued to increase over the last four years, amid major global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and other protracted conflicts, economic downturns, and the intensifying climate crisis", the note continues.

Qu has strongly advocated for the transformation of agrifood systems to make them more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable, with the ultimate goal of helping Members achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promote the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind..

In the emergency and humanitarian response, FAO has been advocating for greater investment in medium and long-term resilience building, livelihood protection and disaster risk reduction support alongside humanitarian actions, especially in fragile contexts. In this sense, the Organization has stepped up its work in prevention and anticipation with the aim to address the root causes of food crises.

Another highlight of Qu’s leadership was the creation of the World Food Forum (WFF) in 2021. "Over the past two years, the WFF has identified powerful ideas, scientific and evidence-based knowledge, innovations, policies and solutions, while forging new partnerships and investment opportunities to transform our agrifood systems", underlines the organization's note.

The WFF will continue to expand its reach in 2023, and "draw a clear connection to the theme of climate action, while the global events in October will again encompass three pillars: the Global Youth Forum, the FAO Hand-in-Hand Forum and the FAO Science and Innovation Forum", concludes the note.