FAO is failing to fulfil its mandate

Mr Rudd heavily criticised the UN's Food Agriculture Organisation, which has a $1.2 billion annual budget, saying it was failing to fulfil its mandate to raise nutrition levels and improve agricultural productivity.

He said the federal government met with the FAO last week and was assessing Australian aid funding to the organisation.

“The challenge for the FAO is to respond to the criticisms of it, and use the recent reviews to reframe itself, and to achieve better results,” Mr Rudd said.