Focus and results must be the essence of international organizations
Austerity, knowledge, focus, efficiency, and results translated into actions that have an impact on countries.
These should be the main guidelines, offerings and deliverables of international organizations that aspire to remain relevant over time and increase their effectiveness by adding value to their Member States.
To achieve these objectives, that is, to endure and grow while remaining useful, it is necessary to take on the fundamental task of becoming meeting places designed to facilitate coordination and consensus among member states and to actively collaborate—based on science, innovation, and best practices—to help overcome common problems and take advantage of opportunities. The work must deliver results and positive impacts.
The areas of agriculture and livestock, which connect vital issues such as food and nutrition security, rural development, supply for new value chains, the incorporation of new technologies, and natural resource management, among others, face great challenges as a result of the current situation characterized by changes and disruptions in areas such as the economy, health, and geopolitics.
In the coming decades, it will be necessary to produce food for 10 billion people, and it will be necessary to do so with diversified and nutritious diets based on production systems that are resilient to shocks caused by environmental stress, while also being efficient in the management of natural resources and capable of generating decent jobs throughout all the value chains in which they are inserted.
In this sense, the Western Hemisphere, or simply the Americas, is the world’s crucial territory because of its contribution to global food security—it is the main net exporter of food—and because of its central components of the planet’s water and oxygen cycle.
In this region, our region, agri-food systems and their rural areas are dynamic and offer opportunities not only for agricultural producers and their families. They also provide an essential service to society as a whole by generating economic development, jobs, helping to reduce crime and uncontrolled migration, and contributing to social peace and political stability through their supply of healthy food.
Addressing the multiple challenges that threaten the Americas’ position as the key region for feeding and nourishing the world requires a renewed and sustained effort in science, technology, and innovation, as well as the design and implementation of new policies and institutional and financial instruments that make a difference so that farmers, ranchers, and other actors in the value chains are central agents, participants, and committed to the large-scale implementation of the necessary solutions.
A focused and purposeful international organization, such as the one I am honored to lead, must work with countries, their governments, farmers, ranchers, and the private sector to help develop and disseminate the technological, policy, and institutional solutions needed to successfully meet the challenges of feeding a growing population with healthy and sustainable diets, while generating investment, income, and employment to boost prosperity in rural areas.
Now more than ever, we need to help lay the foundations for prosperity, opportunity, and national security. International support—delivered with technical and institutional capacity—to countries’ agricultural complexes plays a central role in achieving these objectives.
Our work must focus on addressing specific problems, contributing to their resolution with respect for the sovereign decisions of countries, without assuming supranational functions or exceeding mandates, and with prudent and responsible management of the resources allocated to us by countries.
That is what we are here for.