How can FAO and Civil Society Organizations engage better?

Partnerships are core to FAO’s strategy to achieve its objectives, and as part of this work, FAO has significantly strengthened its connections with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) over the past few years. Since the launch of the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31, which calls for transformative partnerships to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), FAO is pursuing strategic engagement with CSOs, capitalizing on their breadth and diversity of expertise and characteristics, necessary to transforming agrifood systems and overcoming complex global challenges.

FAO seeks close collaboration with CSOs to identify the opportunities and challenges for better and more impactful engagement and held an online consultation in September 2023[1] on the FAO Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum) to drive forward this joint discussion.

CSOs provided their perspective on how to best collaborate with FAO to achieve the SDGs, their role in transforming agrifood systems sustainably and efficiently, the impact of climate change on agriculture, and the strengths and weaknesses of FAO’s current engagement model with CSOs.

The consultation received insightful contributions from 38 countries and diverse organizations working in different fields of expertise, including academia, civil society and other institutions.

Consolidated responses from participants are gathered in the synthesis report available on the FSN Forum webpage. Click here to read the report.