FAO Members in Europe and Central Asia discuss boosting innovation, digitalization, agricultural biodiversity and water governance
The Thirty-fourth Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Europe (ERC) will be hosted by the Republic of Moldova from 14 to 17 May 2024 at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome.
The Regional Conference, which takes place every two years, is FAO’s supreme governing body for the Europe and Central Asia region. The ERC will gather FAO Members from the region, as well as representatives of United Nations agencies, research and academia, the private sector, and civil society.
A ministerial round table will explore regional and global policy and regulatory matters, related, but not limited to:
• the role of innovation and digitalization in the sustainable use of natural resources;
• building resilience through agrifood systems transformation;
• FAO’s response to the multiple crises in the region;
• the implications of the war in Ukraine on world food security;
• fighting food loss and waste; and
• food security.
Another important item on the agenda will be a review of the outcomes of FAO’s work in the region during 2022 and 2023 and a discussion on future priorities until 2031.
Discussions will be framed by FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022–2031 and its aim for a world with better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.
A number of side events will take place during the conference on diverse issues ranging efficient water resource management to the power of true cost accounting to transform agrifood systems and sustainable locust management.
The AgriInnovate Exhibition will showcase innovative practices and solutions that have proven effective in addressing the challenges of the region’s agrifood systems. Taking place during the conference, it will feature the One Country One Priority Product Initiative, Digital Villages Initiative, Regional Technical Platform on Green Agriculture, FAO–Türkiye Partnership Programme, and more.
High-level participants
• QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
• Vladimir Bolea, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Agriculture and Food Industry of the Republic of Moldova
• Anila Denaj, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Albania
• Stasa Kosarac, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Ljupcho Nikolovski, Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy, North Macedonia
• Stefano Canti, Minister of Territory and Environment, Agriculture, Civil Protection, San Marino
• Arman Khojoyan, Deputy Minister of Economy, Armenia
• Nino Tandilashvili, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Georgia
• Yerbol Taszhurekov, Vice Minister of Agriculture, Kazakhstan
• Samat Nasirdinov, Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Agriculture and Processing Industry, Kyrgyz Republic
• Nigina Anvari, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Tajikistan
• Ahmet Bagci, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Türkiye
• Vitaliy Golovnya, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Ukraine
• Alisher Sukurov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Uzbekistan
• Viorel Gutu, FAO Assistant Director-General, Regional Representative
• Nabil Gangi, ERC Secretary
• Hans Hoogeveen, Independent Chairperson of the FAO Council
• Marcel Beukeboom, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to FAO and Vice-Chair of ERC33
The conference can be followed online via the FAO livestream.