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	The multilateralism perspective : reforms at UN and FAO by Juan Felipe Lopez and Rodrigo Rivera, FAO-RLC Consultants

The new global context is distinguished by its dynamism and continuous changes in order to face the new problematic of society. In this sense, the UN has restated its functions to meet in a better way these challenges. Equal challenges have been encountered by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and within it, the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (FAO RLC).

Under this panorama, the present article has the following structure: in the first place, there is an analysis of the fundamental purposes of the United Nations and its struggle during the whole Twentieth Century to keep the continuity of its mandate versus the changes that demand a deep understanding of the new challenges faced by the world. This section concludes exposing the central elements of what was really at stake during the General Assembly in September 2005.

In the second place, the work of FAO is approached in relation to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in two spheres: the first one is related to the consistency of the FAO Strategic Framework with the MDG, while the second one raises the strategies followed by FAO in order to make an effective contribution to the MDG.

In the third place, there is an outline of the main ideas of what has been the internal FAO reform as from 1994, highlighting challenges and circumstances which the Organization had to face in order to be able to provide a responsible satisfaction to the demands of Member Countries.

Finally,  the internal reform process experienced by FAO RLC is presented analyzing specifically the inputs made - as from a regional point of view - to contribute to the effective decentralization of functions, allowing to include in the core of its objectives a more focused work, dynamic and in accordance to the new challenges that will arise in the new global environment.