FAO Regional Conference for Africa: Director-General urges “abundance” narrative for youthful continent
Figure: Group photo during the 34th Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Africa. ©FAO/Med Lemine Rajel
Ministers from around Africa have gathered in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania’s capital to agree on ways the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) can help their countries revive progress towards reducing hunger over the next two years.
This week’s 34th Session of the Regional Conference for Africa (ARC34) indicated priority regional and local themes and areas for FAO to take into account while preparing the Programme of Work and Budget for the next biennium, and aligning with FAO’s Strategic Framework, Medium-Term Plan and country programming frameworks.
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu urged Ministers to leverage the continent’s youthful demographics to bolster food production and distribution. “I am here to tell you a new story, a story of opportunity, a story of abundance – a story of transformation and prosperity,” he said.
“For too long, the narrative surrounding Africa’s agriculture has been one of challenges - of vulnerability, of import dependence, and of unfulfilled potential,” he added.
Technology, ranging from drought-resistant seeds to digital extension services, offer an opportunity to “bypass the limitations of the past” and unlock continent’s agricultural potential, even turning it into “the breadbasket of the world,” he added.
According to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025, more than one in five people in Africa were undernourished in 2024, five percentage points higher than in 2010. While Africa often bears the consequence of climate and conflict shocks created elsewhere, strengthening the continent’s own production capacity is now a strategic necessity as well as a development priority.
Noting that Africa holds 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land and has plenty of water, the Director-General called for bold choices focused on improving infrastructure connecting rural producers to urban markets, using the African Continental Free Trade Area to turn fragmented markets into a single, powerful engine of growth, and focused prioritization of science and innovation. “FAO is your partner in this journey,” Qu said.
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