The OECD at 50
The OECD and the FAO: Working together for food security and agriculture development by Jacques Diouf
T
he OECD has an illustrious 50-year
agriculture and food, specifically in economic
statistics and statistical methodologies. The
history, not least in the field of agriculture
policies, trade and environment, and forward-
bastion of OECD’s policy monitoring system,
and food, where its role has been fundamental
looking assessments of emerging issues such
the Producer Support Estimate (PSE), was
in reshaping the policies of its member
as bioenergy policies. The OECD’s growing
first developed at FAO in 1973. While since
countries. Its first 25 years were marked by
membership, now including emerging countries
refined, it remains core to the OECD’s
heated discussions surrounding the growth of
such as Mexico and Chile, and the extension
important policy work.
highly distortive domestic and trade policies
of its work to eastern European countries as
by its member countries, which were blamed
well as to major countries such as Argentina,
recently began working with OECD staff and
for creating havoc in the international trading
Brazil and China, have provided policy
selected African countries on the Monitoring
system in agriculture. Through its monitoring
outreach worldwide.
African Food and Agricultural Policies project,
and policy analysis work, the OECD has
FAO’s collaboration with OECD extends
Building on this shared experience, FAO
sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates
provided one of the most effective forums for
back to its beginning, as both organisations
Foundation, to build a monitoring system
wrestling these policies down and for providing
are participants at each other’s meetings
to provide consistent and comparable
frameworks for best policy practice.
and engage in meaningful dialogue on issues
information on food and agricultural policies,
affecting agriculture and food by sharing
market-development gaps and public
work programmes and information including
expenditures in order to help support
Through its committee structure, consensus has been built in a wide range of areas affecting
improved policy dialogue at national, regional and international levels. Since 2005, the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook, produced collaboratively by the two organisations, has become a leading publication in the field of forward-looking agricultural commodity market assessments of emerging issues. Recently, the G20 asked both FAO and the OECD to lead in the development of a paper on Price Volatility for its discussion in Paris this year. Growing collaboration between the two organisations is providing leadership in information for more effective governance of global agricultural markets. This is a fundamental contribution to the welfare of the world’s population, and in particular to the improvement of food security and overall agricultural development. Jacques Diouf is Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, which was established in 1945.
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