Former F.A.O. Director-General Jacques Diouf passes away

Senegalese politician and diplomat Jacques Diouf, who was Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) from 1994 to the end of 2011, died at the age of 81. announced Senegalese President Macky Sall.

“Senegal has lost one of its most valuable sons with the death of our countryman Jacques Diouf. He was an effective collaborator for me at the beginning of my first term, “the Senegalese president said on Twitter, offering his condolences.

Senegal has lost one of its most valuable sons with the death of our compatriot Jacques Diouf.

He was an effective collaborator at the beginning of my first term. I salute his memory and offer my heartfelt condolences to his grieving family.

Born August 1, 1938 in Saint-Louis in northern Senegal, diplomat known for his pragmatism, Jacques Diouf died in France after a long illness, said his family, quoted by Senegalese media.Married with five children, he had a post-graduate education in France (agronomist degree, master’s degree in tropical agronomy, doctorate in social sciences) and a higher management diploma in New York.

16 years at the head of FAO

Appointed Secretary of State for Scientific Research of Senegal by President Léopold Sédar Senghor in 1978, he was deputy for Saint-Louis from 1983 to 1984. He then left Senegal to work at the Research Center for International Development in Senegal. Ottawa, at the Central Bank of West Africa, before becoming, in 1991, ambassador of his country to the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Elected to head FAO in 1993, he was to serve three six-year terms. Under his leadership, the UN organization sought the collaboration of the private sector and stars by launching spectacular operations to raise funds for World Food Day. We need to ” let humanity know that it is no longer possible to treat these vital resources as if they were infinite, ” he said about the degradation of land and water in one his most recent interventions as Director General of FAO in November 2011.

That same year, while the famine raged in the Horn of Africa due to an exceptional drought, Jacques Diouf said he could not bear to ” see the image of a child who is at risk of starving “, adding: ” We would not wish that for our children, I do not see why we would accept it for the children of others “.