“United by a shared mission”

The OPEC Fund and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are deepening their cooperation in promoting sustainable development. Opening the IAEA Ministerial Conference in Vienna in late November, OPEC Fund Vice President, Public Sector Al Shaimaa Al-Sheiby said: “We are united by a shared mission: to improve people’s lives through the transformative power of science and technology.” 

She highlighted the cooperation with IAEA in the areas of food security and sustainable agriculture. “As we face pressing global challenges, it is clear that technological solutions are indispensable,” she said. Vice President Al-Sheiby’s visit followed an earlier engagement by OPEC Fund President Abdulhamid Alkhalifa who spoke at the 2024 IAEA Scientific Forum. 

An invitation by IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi to visit the agency’s laboratories in Seibersdorf near Vienna provided a close-up opportunity to see some of the ground-breaking global work that the agency is leading, in partnership with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), on animal production and health, insect pest control, human health and cancer treatment, and plant breeding and genetics. 

Notably, the IAEA’s work in Seibersdorf is central to global efforts to protect the Cavendish variety of banana, which is a major export crop in Latin America. The Cavendish banana is extremely vulnerable to disease and possibly commercial extinction, highlighting the importance of the IAEA/ FAO work to protect it and the many livelihoods that rely upon it.