“A report by leading academics calls for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to change the way it operates and shift to a greater focus on ‘global public goods’ such as data and analysis, though some of its findings are rejected by a senior FAO official,” IRIN reports. “The report [.pdf], titled ‘Time for FAO to Shift into a Higher Gear,’ has emerged from a Center for Global Development (CGD) working group of 21 academics and experts on food security,” the news agency writes, adding, “It argues that FAO has the potential for greater, wider-reaching impact if it moves away from a focus on local, short-term projects.” However, FAO Office for Corporate Communications Chief Enrique Yeves “cautioned that the organization’s main goal of eradicating poverty ‘cannot be achieved solely by producing public goods in isolation,’ noting that ‘FAO is not a research agency,'” according to IRIN (11/6).