Candidate for Chair of the FAO Council
In his journey through FAO’s multilateral governance structures —where he has been Chair of the Committee on World Food Security, Chair of the Committee on Agriculture, Chair of the Global Soils Partnership, Chair of the Commission on Finance, Budget, and Reform, Acting Chair and Vice-Chair of the Programme Committee, and Deputy Chair of the Appeals Committee— Ambassador Mario Arvelo has demonstrated his ability to be objective and his sensitivity to political, social, and cultural differences, accumulating vast experience in all areas of FAO activity, for which he is recognized as an expert in the functioning of its governing bodies. For these reasons, the Dominican government submitted his candidacy to lead the Council and succeed the current Chair Khalid Mehboob of Pakistan; the election will take place on 17 June 2021.
Mario Arvelo sits at the podium during the 158th Council session of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in December 2017, listening to the general debate arising from his report of the 44th session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). From the left, CFS Secretary Mark McGuire, Council Chair Khalid Mehboob, and Council Secretary-General Louis Gagnon. [©FAO/Giuseppe Carotenuto]
Mario Arvelo makes a presentation during a session of the Council of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The Dominican Republic represents Latin America and the Caribbean in the governing body since 2019. In his intervention, Arvelo affirmed that the agencies and scientific panels of the United Nations tell us that we are in a climate crisis, and we just need to watch the news to verify the persistence of armed conflicts. The most recent report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world tells us that the changing climate and wars, as well as the migratory flows that result from them, are the main drivers of the observed increase in the number of hungry and malnourished. It should be recalled here that a disproportionate number of those who suffer from hunger and malnutrition are women and children in countries of the so-called Global South. [©FAO/Giuseppe Carotenuto]
Membership of the FAO Council is one of Arvelo’s achievements at the head of his country’s Permanent Mission, from where he also secured —for the first time in history— seats at the Executive Boards of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP). The Dominican Republic is one of a small number of countries that have earned the international community’s trust for occupying seats simultaneously in the governing bodies of each of the three United Nations agencies that fight against hunger and poverty at national, regional, and global level.
Other links to Mario Arvelo’s work in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
- Mario Arvelo at FAO
- With the Director-General
- In Council
- In the Committee on World Food Security
- In the Committee on Agriculture
- In the Global Soils Partnership
- In the Commission on Finance, Budget, and Reform
- In the Programme Committee
- In the Appeals Committee
- In the Regional Conferences
- In the Committee on Forestry
- In field inspection visits
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