FAO's new leader lays out his plans

Guardian.co.uk
by Mark Tran guardian.co.uk, Monday 27 June 2011 12.41 BST

After narrow win in leadership contest, José Graziano da Silva pledges to reform the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, strive for consensus and tackle food price volatility

The director-general elect of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the UN agency that deals with world hunger, on Monday pledged to work for a minimum consensus to avoid paralysis of the organisation.

On Sunday, José Graziano da Silva, of Brazil, narrowly won a contest to take over the UN's largest agency, with an annual budget of $1bn and 3,600 employees. He took 92 votes out of 180, beating the former Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé, who received 88 votes. The election showed a split between donor countries and developing countries, and at his press conference in Rome, where the FAO is based, Graziano was at pains to stress his efforts to bridge the divide.

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