Angola officials candidacy of Josefa Sacko as Director General of FAO

O Government of Angola today made official, in Rome, Italy, the candidacy of Ambassador Josefa Sacko the Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Fund (FAO).

The ceremony took place at the FAO headquarters in Rome at an event organized by Angola, on the margins of the World Food Forum in Italy, in which the country is represented at the highest level by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço.

The official launch of the Angolan Ambassador's candidacy campaign was made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tete António, and has the support of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union.

An agronomist of training, Josefa Sacko is currently Ambassador of Angola to Italy, and presents to FAO “a vision focused on the appreciation of family farming, women and youth, the modernization of production systems and the strengthening of food security, according to the Angolan Government.

In a statement, the executive points out that “Josefa Sacko’s candidacy for the FAO’s general directorate is one of the priorities of Angolan diplomacy in the country’s participation in multilateral fora linked to agriculture, food and sustainable development.”.

Angola supports the candidacy with “the professional and institutional experience of the candidate, who served as Secretary General of the Inter-African Coffee Organization and Commissioner of the African Union for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment”.

His candidacy “gives priority to strengthening family farming, access for women and young people to the means of production, the creation of employment opportunities for youth and generational renewal in the agricultural sector”.

The candidate proposes “the digitisation of agri-food systems, the use of artificial intelligence, the strengthening of capacity to adapt to climate change and the mobilisation of funding for sustainable and economically viable projects”.

During his speech in Rome today, the head of Angolan diplomacy, Téte António, argued that FAO should continue to be “an organization that places science, innovation and technology at the service of agriculture”.

An organisation, he added, “that supports small producers and rural communities, that promote investment and facilitate access to finance and markets, that strengthens cooperation between countries and regions and that contributes to making agri-food systems more productive, inclusive, resilient and sustainable.”.

This is the vision that Ambassador Josefa Sacko submits to the Member States and it is a vision that Angola considers it able to contribute to bringing FAO even closer to the concrete needs of its member countries, according to the Angolan Government.