JACQUES DIOUF OF SENEGAL WINS SECOND SIX-YEAR TERM AS DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UN FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATION

Press Release
SAG/65

JACQUES DIOUF OF SENEGAL WINS SECOND SIX-YEAR TERM AS DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UN FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATION

ROME, 13 November (FAO) -- Jacques Diouf of Senegal was elected to a second six-year term as Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today. Mr. Diouf received a total of 137 votes out of 163 votes cast, winning over Argentina's Ambassador to Sweden, Juan Carlos Vignaud, who received 26 votes. There were no abstentions. The election took place on the second day of the 179-nation biennial Conference of FAO, which also will vote on the Organization's budget for 2000-2001.

Before being elected as FAO Director-General in November 1993, Mr. Diouf was Senegal's Ambassador to the United Nations in New York. He has also served as Secretary-General of the Central Bank for West African States in Dakar, Senegal, and as a Member of Parliament and Secretary of State for Science and Technology. Earlier he was Executive Secretary for the African Groundnut Council and the West Africa Rice Development Association.

Mr. Diouf was born on August 1, 1938 in Saint-Louis, Senegal. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Social Sciences of the Rural Sector (Agricultural Economics) from the Sorbonne University, Paris, and a Master of Science in Agriculture and Tropical Agronomy from the Ecole Nationale d'Application d'Agronomie Tropicale in Nogent and from the Ecole Nationale d'Agriculture- Grignon, Paris, France. He is married and has five children. He speaks English, French and Spanish.

Dr. Diouf is FAO's seventh Director-General since it was founded in Quebec City, Canada on 16 October, 1945.

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