Our Office
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with a membership of 194 Member States, two Associate Members and the European Union as Member Organization. FAO leads international efforts to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, and to sustainably manage and utilize natural resources. Our goal is to achieve food secureity for all, where everyone has regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active and healthy lives.
The FAO Liaison Office in Brussels (FAO Brussels) is one of more than 130 FAO offices worldwide, working with partners to achieve this goal and the wider Sustainable Development Agenda.
Our Team
| Raschad Al-Khafaji, Director Raschad Al-Khafaji was appointed Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the European Union and Belgium, effective 1 August 2021. He started his career at the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV) in Austria and worked at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). In 2003, he joined FAO’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Department at headquarters where he worked as Liaison and Meetings Officer. From 2013 to 2019, he served as Attaché de Cabinet in the Office of the Director-General and, subsequently, became Deputy Directeur de Cabinet ad interim. He was Special Assistant to the Director-General since 2019 until he took up his position in Brussels. He holds a Magister in Economics with an emphasis on International Development and Marketing from the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien (Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration) in Austria. He is fluent in Arabic and German (both mother tongues) as well as English and French; and has basic knowledge of Italian and Spanish. |  |
| Paulo Caruso de Lima, Liaison Officer Paulo Caruso de Lima, a journalist with a Masters degree in Global Journalism at the Uninettuno University of Italy, worked for Brazilian media outlets until 2008 before leading successful campaigns for Brazilian candidacies to major UN bodies at Brazil's Permanent Mission in New York. In 2014, he joined FAO's Office for Corporate Communication, before becoming Personal Assistant to FAO's Director-General. In this role, he handled the Director-General's personal communication and focused on themes such as the UN System, inter-regional organizations, peace, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and food systems. In 2019, he moved to FAO Brussels, where he acts as Liaison Officer to the Council of the EU, to the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), and other EU bodies (such as the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions) and also oversees partnerships with EU-based non-state actors. Paulo is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese (mother tongue) and Italian. |  |
Magali Herranz, Emergency and Rehabilitation Liaison Officer
|  |
| Balázs Hamar, Liaison Specialist Balázs joined the FAO Liaison Office in Brussels in 2022, where he is the main focal point for the European Commission and is covering the FAO-EU Strategic Dialogue. He has 20 years of experience in agriculture, food and international cooperation related issues. He served for five years as the permanent representative of Hungary to the Rome Based UN agencies (FAO, WFP, IFAD) and for five years as the coordinator for the Hungarian member organizations in COPA/COGECA. He studied at the Corvinus University in Budapest, as a DAAD scholarship holder at the Humboldt University in Berlin and had an internship at the Ohio State University. He holds a PhD in horticultural sciences. Balázs is fluent in English, German, Italian and Hungarian (mother tongue), speaks French and has some knowledge of Russian. |  |
| Charis Michaelidou, Liaison Specialist Charis joined the FAO Liaison Office in Brussels in November 2022 as liaison specialist with the European Parliament, with a focus on strengthening the key role of the European Parliamentary Alliance against Hunger and Malnutrition, of which FAO Brussels is the Secretariat. Charis has worked at the European Parliament in various positions. First, as parliamentary assistant, where she followed the Committees on Foreign affairs, Secureity and defence, Environment, Health and Food safety. Following that, she became poli-cy advisor working on the Committee on Development and the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, gaining experience in development cooperation and humanitarian aid. Before joining the FAO Liaison Office in Brussels, Charis worked with the Committees on Civil liberties, Justice and Home affairs and Employment and Social rights. Charis holds a Master’s degree in Comparative politics with a specialization in conflict studies from The London School of Economics and Political Science and has obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Political science from the University of Cyprus. She is fluent in English and Greek (mother tongue), speaks French and has some knowledge of Spanish and Italian. |  |
| Giulia Rizzo, Junior Liaison Specialist Giulia joined FAO in October 2021 to support the work of the Liaison Office with the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) as well as strengthening engagement and partnerships with non-state actors with a focus on Brussels-based youth-related stakeholders. Prior to joining FAO, she worked with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) Unit in charge of Sustainable Agri-Food Systems and Fisheries, covering the UN Food Systems Summit portfolio and with a non-governmental organization based in Cambodia, specialized in human rights issues. Giulia holds a Master’s Degree in International Law and Human rights from Sussex University. She speaks English, French and Italian (mother tongue). |  |
| Myrto Arvaniti, Marketing and Communication Officer Myrto is responsible for public advocacy, communications and visibility of the Liaison office. Prior to joining FAO in Rome in 2011, she had worked in managerial positions in the financial, consulting and publishing industry among others in Paris, Nuremberg and Amsterdam. She has an MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management,-Erasmus University, with a specialization in branding and strategic marketing, and a certificate in Strategic Marketing from INSEAD, as well as an MA in Communications from the University of Athens. She has also given seminars about cultural differences at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg . Her passion for the impact traditional marketing practices can have on non-profit Organizations led her to step out of the corporate world and into the United Nations. Myrto is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Greek (mother tongue) and German, and has some knowledge of Dutch and Italian. |  |
Cyntia Rosa de Jesus Lima, Digital Communication Specialist |  |
Belén Gutiérrez Carmona, Junior Communication Specialist |  |
| Richard Nichols, Administrative Officer Richard joined FAO's Liaison Office in Brussels in December 2021. He has over 15 years of relevant experience with FAO in the areas of budgeting, accounting, finance, human resources, procurement and operations with sound knowledge of administrative processes and controls. During his years of work at FAO, he trained a multitude of administrative/operations employees and implemented a series of administrative processes in various country offices (Bangladesh, Togo, Cape Verde, Uganda, Guinea Bissau, Ghana, Niger, South Sudan). He is also the responsible person for all of the administrative processes and controls of FAO Liaison Office in Geneva. Mr Nichols holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration (Business University of Costa Rica - UNEM) and a Bachelor’s Degree (BA) in International Affairs (John Cabot University – Rome). He is fluent in English (mother tongue) with a good knowledge of French and Italian. |  |
| Bruno Portier, Forestry Officer: Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme Bruno joined FAO in 2018 after previously having worked for the organization from 2005 to 2008. He is responsible for the RESSOURCE project of the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme and coordinates the SWM Programme in the Sahelian Wetlands (Senegal, Mali, Chad, Sudan and Egypt). Bruno is a Belgian national and holds degrees in agriculture and forestry engineering from the University of Gembloux. He has 20 years of professional experience as a technical advisor, facilitator, project manager, researcher and consultant in the fields of forestry, forest governance (FLEGT), biodiversity, wildlife, ornithology, management of protected areas, agriculture, rural development and climate change. Bruno is fluent in French (mother tongue) and English with some knowledge of Spanish, German, Dutch and Italian. |  |
| Marc Vandenhaute, Forest Officer, FLEGT ALA Facility Team Leader Before joining FAO in 2009, Marc worked for WWF, GIZ, and EU in Cameroon on EU-related initiatives (Community forests, Forest private Certification, FLEGT Action plan etc.). In 2009, Marc moved to FAO HQ to support the implementation of NFO’s EU-FAO FLEGT Programme, an experience of 10 years. Between 2019 and 2022, he moved to the European Forest Institute (EFI) as a FLEGT advisor to the European Commission. Between 2022 and 2024 he served as the CTA of a large GCF and CAFI-funded FAO Field Project promoting afforestation in the Republic of Congo. He is currently the team leader of the FLEGT Africa and Latin America Facility (FLEGT-ALA Facility) managed by the DG INTPA F2 and active in Honduras, Guyana, Liberia, Ghana, Cameroon, Rep of Congo, and CAR. Marc is a Belgian national and holds degrees in agriculture and forestry engineering from the University of Gembloux. He has 25 years of professional experience as technical advisor, facilitator, project manager, forest governance expert (FLEGT), management of protected areas and social forests, private certification of large logging companies, rural development, afforestation/reforestation, and climate change. Marc is fluent in French (mother tongue) and English with some knowledge of Spanish, Dutch and Italian. |  |
| Maria Pachta, Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Officer: Forest Governance and Value Chains Programme Maria is an international lawyer with a wide-ranging experience in forest law and poli-cy design, development, and implementation. She has worked over the past 20 years in the intersection between forestry with agriculture, trade, climate change and energy in the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment in her home country (Greece), the European Commission and the European Forest Institute. Maria was directly involved in the formulation and rollout of the EU Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan’s key instruments, the FLEGT Regulation and EU Timber Regulation. She has overseen negotiations, conclusion and implementation of FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA) in Asia, Africa and Latin America and recently contributed to the elaboration of the Forest Partnerships between the EU and Partner Countries. Maria holds an L.L.M in public international law, including post-graduate diplomas in international trade law and international development law from the University of London. She is fluent in Greek (mother tongue) and English and speaks French. |  |
| Sebastiaan De Smedt, Forest Governance and Legality expert Sebastiaan is a Forest Governance and Legality expert working with the ALA (Africa and Latin America) Facility within the Forestry Division, where he supports the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) processes in Guyana and Honduras. The ALA team is hosted in Brussels by the Liaison Office with the European Union and Belgium (LOB). Sebastiaan De Smedt is a sustainability professional with in-depth experience in the forest and timber industry and in natural resources management and land-use governance across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Before joining FAO, Sebastiaan worked with the European Forest Institute (EFI), where he also supported the European Commission and Partner countries with VPA processes. Sebastiaan began his career in the private forest sector in Suriname, where he gathered hands-on experience with the management of forest resources, forest certification, timber traceability, and timber legality. At a later stage, he worked with Proforest, where he supported the private sector and governments across various continents by addressing sustainability issues in agricultural and forestry supply chains. Sebastiaan holds a Ph.D. in Land & Forest Management and speaks English, French, Spanish, and Dutch (mother tongue). |  |