FAO. Nordic Statement on the Report of the 141st Session of the Programme Committee

Mr Chair,

1. I speak on behalf of the five Nordic countries, the EU members; Denmark, Finland and Sweden, as well as Iceland and my own country Norway. Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway align themselves with the EU statement.
   
   
2. The Nordic countries would like to congratulate the new Chair of the Programme Committee, Mr Maarten de Groot, for a well conducted and productive meeting. The Nordic Countries endorse the report of the Program Committee and the updated Strategy for Private Sector Engagement 2026-2030 with the following comments.
   
   
3. We express our support for the work of the Office of Evaluation (OED) and welcome the updated rolling workplan of evaluations which contain several areas of interest to us, such as the evaluation of the The Special Fund for Emergency and Resilience Activities (SFERA), which we support. We also support the recommendations of the Programme Committee to evaluate the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and the World Food Forum as well as the increased focus of the OED on the Learning Agenda and the capacity building of Country Offices.
   
   
4. One Health and AMR are priorities for all Nordic countries. We underline the importance for FAO to continue its efforts in this domain, both within FAO through the new Roadmap for Addressing AMR in Agrifood Systems and within the Quadripartite collaboration and the Global Action Plan on AMR. We look forward to engaging with FAO and other members in the development of these initiatives.
   
   
5. The Nordic countries are concerned with the continued negative effects of inadequate and unhealthy diets on health and wellbeing, such as stunting and wasting in young children, and therefore welcome the Vision and Approach for FAO’s work in Nutrition (VAN) including its updated pathway to Better Nutrition. We agree with the PC’s overall recommendations and particularly want to highlight the importance of activities and indicators linked to food safety.
   
   Mr Chair,
   
   
6. Bioeconomy is high on the agenda for many countries, including the Nordics. We believe there is huge, innovative and diverse potential for sustainable development and improved livelihoods in this field. We also appreciate FAO’s work in advancing sustainable forest-based bioeconomy approaches. A continued dialogue, capacity-building efforts and knowledge sharing is, however, needed. We support FAO in the path towards a global multistakeholder partnership on bioeconomy.
   
   
7. Finally, data and statistics are at the core of FAO’s normative mandate. Reliable information is crucial for good decision making and stable governance. It therefore is of great concern that resources are diminishing while demand is growing. We agree with the Programme Committee’s findings that funding needs to be allocated from the regular budget and that further efforts are needed to identify ways of ensuring that this work can continue at the highest of standards.
   
   Thank you, Mr Chair.