FAO: José Graziano da Silva elected Director-General

Rome / IT. (fao) José Graziano da Silva of Brazil was elected Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The election took place at the biennial 191 FAO member nation Conference in Rome. As Brazil´s Extraordinary Minister of Food Security and Fight Against Hunger, Graziano da Silva (61) was responsible for implementing the country´s highly-successful «Zero Hunger» programme, in whose design he also played a leading role. The programme helped lift 24 million people out of extreme poverty in five years and to reduce undernourishment in Brazil by 25 percent. Since 2006, he has served as FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean. Graziano da Silva is FAO´s eighth Director-General since the Organization was founded in Quebec City, Canada in October 1945. The term of the new Director-General, who will succeed Senegal´s Jacques Diouf, will start on 01 January 2012 and run through 31 July 2015.

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