Focusing the FAO on Global Public Goods – Vijaya Ramachandran

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The CGD Podcast

Episode: Focusing the FAO on Global Public Goods – Vijaya Ramachandran
Date: October 22, 2013
Host: Lawrence MacDonald
Guest: Vijaya Ramachandran, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development

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Overview

In this episode, host Lawrence MacDonald speaks with Vijaya Ramachandran, lead author of a new report on the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The discussion centers on the critical need for a reorientation of FAO’s mission, arguing that the organization should focus its resources on supplying global public goods—such as agricultural research, data, and early warning systems—rather than on fragmented, country-level projects. The working group’s recommendations are detailed, pragmatic, and quantitatively specific, offering a roadmap for future FAO reform in the face of growing global food security challenges.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Focus on the FAO Now?

• Global urgency: With the world’s population projected to increase by 2 billion by 2050, there are immense pressures on food supply, intensified by climate change and volatile production cycles.
• Persistent hunger: Roughly a billion people remain undernourished worldwide.
• FAO’s role: "We need an organization that can meet those challenges." – Vijaya Ramachandran [00:49]

2. The Working Group & Report Development

• Nearly two dozen global experts (from China, the US, Germany, Australia, Nepal, and more) contributed perspectives and expertise.
• Process: Eighteen months of collaboration, consensus-building, and experience exchange went into developing key themes and messages.
• Expertise breadth: All group members "believe very strongly that FAO needs to play a central role in raising agricultural productivity." – Ramachandran [02:56]

3. Consensus: Shift to Global Public Goods

• Unanimity on mission: Despite group diversity, there was rapid agreement that FAO should specialize in global public goods.
• Historic successes: The global eradication of rinderpest and development of food safety standards illustrate the organization’s greatest impacts—transnational problems requiring coordinated solutions.
  • “FAO’s biggest achievements was around things like the eradication of rinderpest... these are the kinds of things that we consider to be global public goods.” – Ramachandran [03:30]
• Problem with current focus: Recent decades saw FAO fragmented into small-scale, local projects, often at governments’ request, rather than acting on issues with cross-border significance.

4. What Are Global Public Goods in Agriculture?

• Examples: Data collection, research, early warning systems for pests, food balance sheets, and neutral venues for global policy dialogue.
• Contrast: Projects strictly in individual districts or villages "seemed to me to be the antithesis of global public goods." – MacDonald [04:33]
• No substitute: "We want the kinds of products that are widely applicable where no other organization can provide these types of goods." – Ramachandran [05:00]
• Case study: FAO’s leadership in eradicating rinderpest—a viral cattle disease—with a decades-long vaccination campaign.

5. Prospects for Change Under New Leadership

• Hopeful climate: Recent appointment of Director General José Graziano (after 18 years of previous leadership) creates opportunities for organizational renewal.
• Data focus: Renewed commitment to improving the collection of agricultural data—critical for planning and policy.
• Funding challenge: “One thing that's very critical... is that the member states of the FAO provide funding for its core activities rather than funding that's earmarked for specific country level projects.” – Ramachandran [06:47]
• Trust fund reliance: Over-reliance on specific, non-core funding undermines long-term, broad-based action.

6. Concrete Recommendations

• Budget reallocation: Recommendation that at least 50% of FAO’s activities focus on providing global public goods (currently ~33%).
  • National/provincial activities should be reduced to 5%.
  • Remaining funds should be directed to regional public goods—like productivity projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • "About 50% of FAO’s activities should be directed towards the supply of global public goods." – Ramachandran [07:33]
• Pragmatic numbers: Distinct from generalized recommendations, the report provides specific, actionable targets.

7. Reception Within FAO and Challenges Ahead

• Organizational dynamics: Internal FAO perspectives will vary—staff invested in small-scale projects may resist, while proponents of global initiatives may embrace these recommendations.
• Influence of the report: Early conversations with FAO staff and management at sister agencies (WFP, IFAD) are welcoming.
• Potential impact: “This report can serve as a very good basis for a dialogue on where FAO should be going.” – Ramachandran [09:46]
• Reform complexity: Even logical reallocations are difficult within large, vested-interest organizations.
  • “Anytime you're trying to reform a large organization... it is, in fact, extremely difficult.” – MacDonald [10:20]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We need to worry about having a proper agency that will guide the thinking and the policy dialogue around increasing the productivity of agriculture, increasing our food supply, having enough food for people to eat.”
  — Vijaya Ramachandran [00:55]

• “Everybody in the group... felt that FAO’s biggest achievements was around things like the eradication of rinderpest, the introduction of international food safety standards—the kinds of things that we consider to be global public goods.”
  — Vijaya Ramachandran [03:30]

• “Unfortunately over the last couple of decades, FAO has been pulled into very small scale or very country level type activities, often in response to demand from Agriculture Ministers... What it really does need to be doing is providing public goods that can be used by farmers and by other people in the world food system all over the world.”
  — Vijaya Ramachandran [04:52]

• “The group believes that about 50% of FAO’s activities should be directed towards the supply of global public goods. Currently it’s about a third... [and] national level things... be reduced all the way to 5%.”
  — Vijaya Ramachandran [07:33]

• “I think the report will generate a lot of dialogue, a lot of debate around where the organization should go... This report can serve as a very good basis for a dialogue on where FAO should be going.”
  — Vijaya Ramachandran [09:04], [09:46]

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Key Timestamps

• 00:49 – Why should we care about the FAO now?
• 01:48 – Composition and expertise of the working group
• 03:22 – Consensus on focusing FAO on global public goods
• 04:52 – Critique of FAO’s country-level projects vs. global role
• 06:09 – Prospects for FAO reform under new leadership
• 07:30 – Specific recommendations: budget allocation targets
• 09:04 – How the report is being received within FAO
• 10:32 – The challenge of organizational change

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Summary

This episode underscores the urgent need for the FAO to refocus on delivering global public goods, drawing on its historic successes and the global nature of food security challenges. The discussion is pragmatic and consultative, offering precise recommendations for the organization’s future and acknowledging the complex realities of institutional reform. The report’s fundamental insight: only by prioritizing activities with worldwide benefits—like disease eradication, data, and research—can the FAO fulfill its mission in an era of unprecedented global food pressures.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the Global Prosperity wonkast. I'm Lawrence McDonald. My guest today is Vijaya Ramachandran. Vijaya is a senior fellow here at the center for Global Development and and the lead author of a new working group report on the Food and Agricultural Organization, one of three Rome based food agencies. Vij, welcome to the show.

[B]

Thanks very much, Lawrence.

[A]

Vij, the title of your report is Food and Agricultural Time to Shift into a Higher Gear. Why should we care about the FAO more now than say, 10 years ago?

[B]

Well, I think we need to care a lot about the FAO and what it does. We're looking at increasing levels of population. We think by 2050 there'll be 2 billion more people on the planet. We're looking at a number of factors that are affecting the supply of food, including climate change and other kinds of factors that might cause volatility in the production of food. And we need to worry about having a proper agency that will guide the thinking and the policy dialogue around increasing the productivity of agriculture, increasing our food supply, having enough food for people to eat. There are still almost a billion people currently who don't eat enough food. And so we need an organization that can meet those challenges.

[A]

Before we get into the recommendations of the report, tell me a bit about the working group. You had some pretty knowledgeable people from a wide variety of backgrounds serving with you on the working group.

[B]

That's correct, Lawrence. We had almost two dozen experts on food security from all over the world who met a couple of times and communicated over email and other forms of communication to develop the themes of this report. We had experts from China. We had Jikun Huang, who is a noted expert on food security issues in China. We had people from the US we had Peter Timmer, who as you know, is a well known expert on food security. Emmy Simmons, who had a distinguished career in the U.S. government, including at the U.S. agency for International Development. We had Regina Berner from Germany, she's a respected academic working on food security. Jacques Anderson from Australia. We had a number of other people, Sushil Pandey from Nepal who spent his career at the International Rice Research Institute. And over a period of 18 months, this group met to outline the themes and the key messages of this report. All of these individuals have had repeated interactions with the Food and Agriculture Organization. All of them are extremely familiar with its work. All of them believe very strongly that FAO needs to play a central role in raising agricultural productivity and meeting the increasing demand for food. And so it was a very interesting experience to interact with this group to hear their various views and then, you know, to formulate the key messages based on their perspectives and their expertise.

[A]

Was it hard to get consensus on the central idea that the FAO should focus more on global public goods?

[B]

You know, I thought at the outset that there would be very divergent views on what FAOs should do, particularly as this group is very diverse in terms of backgrounds and geography and so on. But the group coalesced very quickly around the idea of the provision of global public goods. I think everybody in the group feels, felt that FAO's biggest achievements was around things like the eradication of rinderpest, the introduction of international food safety standards, the kinds of things that we consider to be global public goods. This group very strongly believes that those are the kinds of things FAO should be doing going forward, you know, based on its record of achievements, based on what the world needs. I think there was very strong consensus around that.

[A]

You know, we talk a lot about global public goods here at the center for Global Development. I think that for some people they can seem a little abstract, but in reading the report and working with you on the press release, I thought in the case of the fao, it was quite clear that they traditionally have been pulled into a lot of single country agricultural products, providing irrigation or other kinds of showcase agricultural products, sometimes just within one district. This seemed to me to be the antithesis of global public goods. Whereas when you talk about data collection, research, early warning systems for pests, these are things where the activity, the benefits of the activity are shared across many, many countries.

[B]

Yes, that's exactly right. You know, unfortunately over the last couple of decades, FAO has been pulled into very small scale or very country level type activities, often in demand, you know, often in response to the demand from Agriculture Minister. What it really does need to be doing is providing public goods that can be used by farmers and by other people in the world food system all over the world. We want the kinds of products that are widely applicable where no other organization can provide these types of goods. You know, one example is the eradication of rinderpest, which was a viral disease that caused very high mortality rates in cattle. And FAO led a decades long vaccination campaign and finally eradicated rind. I mean, that's a good example of a global public good. Nobody else can provide it. And FAO played a very critical role. That's the kind of thing it needs to be doing going forward.

[A]

What are the prospects for change? You note in the report that the FAO had a Long period of stagnancy. It's had difficulty raising the funds that it needs to do its core work. There's recently been a leadership change at the fao. Do you think that that's going to open a new page in its history?

[B]

I think everybody is very hopeful about the leadership change at fao. They have a new Director General, Jose Graziano, the first in 18 years. And I think under his leadership there is enormous scope for change. You mentioned earlier the issue of data collection. I think FAO has made a renewed commitment to improve its collection of data production and consumption data. It generates food balance sheets, for example, for every country. It needs to do that in a more systematic manner. So I think everybody is hopeful that under Dr. Graziano's leadership that the organization will improve its supply of global public goods. Now one thing that's very critical to this change is that the member states of the FAO provide funding for its core activities rather than funding that's earmarked for specific country level projects or funding that's outside the core channels. In recent times there's been a lot of reliance on trust funds and that's very difficult for fao.

[A]

You have a very specific recommendation. I've seen a lot of these reports, including a lot from CGD that say that international agencies should do more of this and less of that. You have good hard numbers in there. Tell us what those recommendations are in terms of the share of the budget that should go for different kinds of activities.

[B]

Yes, the working group believes that about 50% of FAO's activities should be directed towards the supply of global public goods. Currently it's about a third of its activities. And the group feels that the organization really should reorient itself so that it is providing, you know, a very substantial amount of the activity that it's undertaking is towards the provision of global public goods. The group also recommends that the kinds of national level things or you know, village level or province level activ that FAO is currently doing be reduced all the way to 5% and that the remainder of the budget should be spent towards regional activities. Again providing regional public goods that are applicable to a continent wide set of problems such as those that exist around productivity in Sub Saharan Africa.

[A]

VIJ I'm thinking if I were in the FAO and I was involved in these small village or township level projects, I would probably hate your report. On the other hand, if I were involved in the provision of global public goods, say pest eradication, early warning systems, data collection, research. You also mentioned hosting, providing a Neutral venue for discussions on global agricultural policy. I think I might use it as a bludgeon to push for what I want. Do you have any sense what the dynamic is like within the fao? The consultative draft has been out for a while. Are people already using this report to discuss the pros and cons of its direction?

[B]

You know, I think the report will generate a lot of dialogue, a lot of debate around where the organization should go. We have had a number of conversations with staff and management at the FAO as well as at its sister organizations, the World Food Program and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Those are also located in Rome, as is the fao. All of these organizations have been very welcoming about this report report and its messages. Everybody feels that this is the time for FAO to think about where it needs to be going. The organization itself has undertaken a reform process. It has a new strategy. There are many similarities with the kinds of recommendations that are in our report. And we feel that, you know, this report can be of help to staff and management and maybe even more importantly, it can be of help to the key stakeholders, the key member states that provide the vast majority of its funding. I think for those states and the individuals that represent those states, this report can serve as a very good basis for a dialogue on where FAO should be going.

[A]

Well, thank you very much. You'll be watching this with great interest. I want you to come back on the show in a year and give us a report card as to how well the FAO is moving along towards reallocation of its budget. It makes total sense. It sounds easy. I imagine anytime you're trying to reform a large organization and reallocate money from one thing to another, it is in fact, extremely difficult.

[B]

Yes, I believe it will be difficult, Lawrence, because I think it's balancing a number of different interests and, you know, stakeholder perspectives and so on. But I look forward to seeing what happens in the coming year and I'd be delighted to come back and discuss it with you.

[A]

The stakes are very high.

[B]

Indeed they are.

[A]

This has been the Global Prosperity Wonkcast from the center for Global Development. My guest today is Vijaya Ramachandran and we've been talking about a forthcoming center for Global Development Working Group report on the Food and Agricultural Organization shifting into a higher gear. You can find the Wonkast online on itunes and on stitcher. Just search for Wonkcast or CGD and sign up to hear a new interview every week. Until next time, I'm Lawrence MacDonald. Thanks for listening.

[B]

Sa Sam.