Angolan diplomat campaigns to become first woman to lead FAO

 ROME – Angola is putting forward its current ambassador to Italy and Rome’s UN agencies, Josefa Sacko, to contest the 2027 FAO leadership election, said the Angolan ministry of agriculture. 

 She joins an increasingly crowded field—Ireland, Italy, Spain and Turkey have all launched rival bids to lead the agency—and will have to break through a historic glass ceiling at the FAO preventing women from reaching senior positions in order to be successful.

 Before being posted to the Eternal City, Sacko was the African Union’s agriculture commissioner, and formerly advised the Angolan government on agricultural affairs.  

 Despite boasting significant international experience and a potentially favourable voting system—each FAO member state receives one vote, meaning a united African bloc could provide a significant boost—she faces an uphill battle in terms of becoming the preferred candidate. 

 Irish nominee Phil Hogan has emerged as the early favourite, with his experience managing two EU commissionerships trumping the résumé of his rivals (his political rap sheet is equally impressive). 

 He has already scored the early endorsement of France, one of the most influential voices in the EU, and appears well placed to exploit his connections in Brussels to rally other European capitals behind his bid. 

 While Sacko’s current ambassadorship means she will have been able to get a head start on Hogan in building up a base of support within the FAO, she is also outflanked in this regard by Italian candidate and FAO Deputy Director-General Maurizio Martina. 

 Martina has had five years to consolidate his standing connections within the within UN agency, and will know better than any of his challengers which officials to work, and levers to pull, in order to become the successful candidate. 

 Sacko also faces a daunting obstacle unrelated to her rivals: continued barriers to women reaching senior positions at the troubled UN agency. 

 Despite celebrating it 80th anniversary last year, the FAO has never had a woman at its helm, with a 2023 internal report finding only 28% of positions at director level or above were held by women. 

 As with Spain and Turkey, it remains to be seen whether Sacko's bid represents a genuine effort by the Angolan government to lead the UN agency, or a means to extract concessions later down the line in return for dropping their candidacy.

 Regardless, the entry of yet another challenger will increase pressure on EU capitals to converge on a single candidate, or risk seeing the chance to put a European in charge of the organisation for the first time in 50 years slip away.

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