ROME – Chilean honcho Samuel Varas is expected to become Assistant Director General for Corporate Services at the Food And Agriculture Organisation as Brazilian Director General José Graziano da Silva reshuffles his pack of top executives to give Latin Americans still more power ahead of the forthcoming session of the FAO Council, sources at the UN agency say.

ROME - The beloved Italian film director and screenwriter, Ermanno Olmi, has died at the age of 86, his family say.

 He passed away in the hospital of Asiago, surrounded by his wife and children.

 He was probably best known for his film The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L'Albero degli zoccoli), which won the Palme d’Or at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.

 Many consider his works to be part of the Italian neorealist movement, however, Olmi used to argue against this classification saying that he was in fact responding against it by using non-professional actors.

ROME – The Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD organised a two-day long international conference to explore the critical question: “Rural Inequalities: Evaluating Approaches to Overcome Disparities”.

 It took place at the IFAD headquarters in Via Paolo di Dono on Wednesday and Thursday.

 The well-versed speakers, as well as those who attended, examined and discussed whether strategies and programmes that aim to eradicate rural poverty and inequality are actually succeeding in their mission.

ROME – WFP have announced some important expansions in their health coverage for Consultants, short-term International Professional staff (STP) and short-term General Service staff (TAU), who work at their headquarters and offices.

 These developments have been implemented after issues of medical coverage and pregnancy-related benefits were brought up at WFP’s second staff meeting in 2017.

 The concerns expressed by these employee groups reportedly troubled Executive Director David Beasley, who assembled a team to look at them in more depth and find a solution.