26 April 2021, Rome – Addressing the 166 th Session of the FAO Council today, Director-General QU Dongyu highlighted the ways the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been providing constant support to Members, including to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of the decisions, activities and results shared with Council today are “not an isolated exercise, but part of an interlinked chain of progress,” he said. Alluding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Director-General noted that “we are witnessing the scale of the long-term effects on agri-food systems, food security and nutrition situations around the world,” pointing to adverse trends such as increasing food prices, the suspension of school meals in many parts of the world, restrictions on selling food in public urban places, jobs at risk in the processing and distribution sectors, and negative impacts in incomes, especially for rural households in mostly agricultural areas.