Senior leaders of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) from across Africa gathered in Accra for the opening of the 15th FAO Regional Management Team (RMT15) Meeting, with a strong focus on innovation, improving efficiency, accelerating delivery and scaling impact for Members across the continent.

Held under the theme “Driving Efficiency for Delivery and Impact: Innovate. Accelerate. Scale, the three-day meeting brings together senior leaders from FAO headquarters, FAO Representatives from across Africa, Subregional Coordinators, and Regional Office teams to examine how the Organization can strengthen performance and deliver more effectively in an increasingly complex operating environment.

Opening the session, FAO Deputy Director-General Godfrey Magwenzi highlighted Africa’s central role in the Organization’s future success and global relevance.

"Africa is where many pressures converge most visibly and where FAO must show that it can deliver with ambition, discipline and innovation. In this context, Africa is central to FAO's relevance, credibility and future impact," he said. "If we can demonstrate effective, coherent and scalable delivery in Africa, we strengthen the organization as a whole."

FAO Deputy Director-General Maurizio Martina underscored the importance of organizational coherence and integrated delivery in achieving greater impact.

“If FAO is to scale its impact in Africa, we must strengthen our ability to deliver as one integrated system, avoiding duplication, shortening decision chains and operating as one coherent institution, as One FAO,” Martina said.

Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol echoed the message that delivery matters more than ever and that FAO needs to deliver with greater speed and coordination. “Success is not measured by securing resources but how effectively we turn those resources into results,” she said.

Ghana hosts top continental meeting
Representing the host country, the Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture of Ghana, John Dumelo welcomed participants to Ghana and highlighted that agriculture is at the centre of Ghana’s transformation agenda.

“Let us use this meeting to renew our collective commitment to delivery. Let us ensure that our work brings real change to farmers, fishers, processors, youth and disadvantaged communities,” he said.

The Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development of Ghana, Emilia Arthur, emphasized the importance of strong partnerships and praised the collaboration with FAO. She urged participants to "innovate boldly, accelerate delivery and scale what works".

African Union Commissioner Moses Vilakati, emphasized that partnerships are essential for progress, and that Africa must prioritise inclusive and climate-smart agriculture. “We call on FAO and all partners to strengthen collaboration and coordination and support implementation on the ground with speed and scale,” he said.
Keynote address urges concrete action
In his keynote address, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa, Abebe Haile-Gabriel, challenged participants to focus on concrete actions at all levels of the Organization, outlining five priority areas:

Firstly, sharper prioritization, ensuring that management attention and resources are focused on the activities that matter most for delivery and impact.

Second, stronger portfolio oversight, enabling managers to identify implementation challenges, emerging risks and critical decisions earlier and more systematically.

Third, earlier escalation of bottlenecks and clearer ownership of problems, emphasizing the importance of timely action and accountability.

Fourth, learning more deliberately from country experiences, identifying successful approaches and adapting them across the region to improve performance at scale.
Finally, he stressed the need for stronger follow-through, ensuring that decisions are translated into action and that progress is tracked more rigorously.

“When we prioritize better, monitor more intelligently, escalate earlier, learn faster and follow through more rigorously, then we will improve delivery where it matters most: at country level,” he said.

FAO delivering better for Africa
The Regional Management Team Meeting comes at a pivotal moment for FAO in Africa as the Organization works to deliver on the FAO Strategic Framework 2022–2031 amid declining core resources and growing levels of hunger and malnutrition.

Over the next three days, discussions will focus on key areas including: operational effectiveness, people and leadership, analytics and evidence, supply-chain management, risk-smart management and fiduciary oversight, and measuring results that matter to members and partners.
The programme also includes sessions on FAO’s flagship initiatives, including the Hand-in-Hand Initiative, One Country One Priority Product, Digital Villages and Green Cities, as well as discussions on gender, youth, monitoring and evaluation, science and innovation, and preparations for the 4th FAO Global Working Conference which will be hosted in Accra in December.