Two Areas where FAO Has Failed

In two very specific areas I see FAO has failed to provide guidance to the world. Both are vital areas. One is its failure to relate its work to ending poverty and the other is providing a credit system for farmers that works.

Despite repeated acknowledgement that the root cause of hunger is poverty, FAO has not taken up a strategy to remove poverty from the world. This is particularly unfortunate at this time when nobody can say that removing poverty from the world is an impossible task. The Grameen Bank has demonstrated conclusively that even the poorest are creditworthy and that the poor can move out of poverty by their own efforts if an appropriate supportive institution is available to them.