Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her policies of (a) the proposals for reform set out in the report entitled Facilitating progress towards SDG2: Zero Hunger, published by Chatham House on 15 February 2022 and (b) the proposals on improving transparency in the selection process of leaders of the three UN Rome-based agencies by (i) creating a code of conduct for the election process and (ii) holding public events for leadership candidates to answer questions from key stakeholders.

We agree that the three Rome UN agencies have a critical role within the international architecture in achieving food security and improving nutrition, but that their collective potential is not being fully realised. The UK has led efforts at UN system-wide reform and has worked closely with other Member States on better collaboration between agencies for greater effectiveness and efficiency. The UK has been at the heart of ongoing reforms described in the Chatham House paper on introducing more transparent and merit-based procedures for selecting agency heads in Rome. These have included the introduction of hearings with candidates in IFAD and FAO. We welcomed Chatham House's contribution to public events prior to the last elections in those agencies and look forward to their continued engagement.