News - September 15, 2005

Rabbinge FAO candidate

Professor Rudy Rabbinge of Wageningen University has been nominated as a candidate for the position of chairman of the FAO Council. The council is the governing body of the FAO, the United Nations world food organisation.The position of council chairman is not a full-time job, so if Rabbinge gets it he will not have to leave Wageningen. Rabbinge has one rival candidate, Said Noori Naeini from Iran. The Iranian has been FAO ambassador in his country for twelve years. The 180 members of the FAO council will elect their new chairman on 25 November.
Rabbinge believes he stands a good chance of being elected. ‘There are only two candidates so far, and I am the only one from the OECD.’ The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development consists of thirty rich western countries. The current chairman of the FAO Council is the Moroccan Aziz Mekouar. As his two predecessors were also from developing countries, the Dutch government has declared that it is time for a candidate from an OECD member country. / KV