Codex Documents Clerk Daniela Salvi Retires

On the 9th April 2015 one of the Codex documents clerks Daniela Salvi (pictured with Codex Secretary Tom Heilandt) will retire after 14 years service in Codex and a life in FAO from when she joined in 1978 aged just 18. Following her retirement celebration last Tuesday we spoke briefly to Daniela about her time in FAO and Codex.

Q. Tell us about your first job.

A. I began in late 1978 as a Library Clerk in the Fisheries Library in the old building on the Via Cristoforo Colombo. I was born and grew up in a small village outside Rome called Riano and the thing I remember most about those early days in FAO was the number of different cultures that I encountered moving into an international environment.

Q. Where did you next work?

A. In 1982 I applied for a post in HQ and moved to the Distribution Group dealing with all FAO publications. Then in 1983/4, I went back to the library first on the lending desk and then in the documentation office cataloguing and indexing the vast number of books and periodicals that FAO worked with.

Q. And the in 2001 you moved to the Codex Secretariat.

A. That's right. I applied for and got another promotion and began working in Codex.

Q. What is the Codex Alimentarius to you?

A. Codex taught me the importance of the Standards we produce in our everyday lives - I mean what we eat and how we deal with food on a daily basis: the things we take for granted.

Q. What will you miss when you retire?

A. Of course my colleagues and the relationships I have made all over FAO in my time here. The people and services (like translation programming, distribution, printing etc) that I dealt with on a daily basis. I will miss all of that but I intend to make the most of my free time in the countryside with gardening, yoga, golf and I'm going to take a pottery course too.

Q. What would you say to someone entering FAO for the first time now?

A. I would encourage people to believe in the work that FAO does. There is sometimes a perception that people join the organisation for what they can gain personally, but it should be about what we do here, about contributing in some small way to improving the world. I admit I lost this drive a little over time but when I joined I was amazed, especially when speaking with field officers, to learn what FAO does and can do for developing countries .