4 March 2019, Rome – Five* candidates have been presented by FAO Member Countries for the post of FAO Director-General to be elected in June 2019, the agency announced today.
Election for the agency’s top leadership post with a four-year term of office starting on August 2019 will take place at the 41st Session of FAO’s Conference (Rome, 22-29 June 2019), the highest governing body of the Organization.
The deadline for nominations was Thursday, 28 February 2019.
The candidates
The five candidates, each nominated by his/her government, are listed in alphabetical order by country: Médi Moungui (Cameroon), Qu Dongyu (China), Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle (France), Davit Kirvalidze (Georgia) and Ramesh Chand (India).
Members will cast their vote on a one country-one vote basis in a secret ballot which requires a simple majority for a valid outcome.
The next Director-General of FAO will be appointed for the period 1 August 2019 to 31 July 2023. The Director-General will be eligible for only one additional mandate of four years.
The new Director-General will succeed José Graziano da Silva, who was first elected in 2011 and has served two consecutive terms.
* Mr Médi Moungui announced the withdrawal of his candidature in a 21 March 2019 letter addressed to the Secretary-General of the Conference and the Council of FAO.
* On 13 June 2019, the Secretary-General of the Conference and Council received a communication from the Government of India informing of the withdrawal of the nomination of Ramesh Chand.
Since the establishment of FAO in 1945, there have been eight Directors-General:
• Sir John Boyd Orr, United Kingdom, 1945-1948
• Norris E. Dodd, United States, 1948-1954
• Philip Vincent Cardon, United States, 1954-1956
• Binay Ranjan Sen, India, 1956-1967
• Addeke Hendrik Boerma, Netherlands, 1968-1975
• Edouard Saouma, Lebanon, 1976-1993
• Jacques Diouf, Senegal, 1994-2011
• José Graziano da Silva, Brazil, 2011-2019