News

The Office of Partnerships and Advocacy Branch (OCPP) is launching a series of CSO dialogues on key issues of concern to FAO. The dialogues provide a forum for civil society perspectives to be heard and discussed with FAO staff. The first session titled Plant Genetic Resources: perspectives from the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) will be held on Tuesday April 16th. The IPC will present its working group on seeds and agrobiodiversity.  IPC is an international network that brings together several global and regional organizations representing small scale food producers, fisherfolks, agricultural workers and indigenous peoples. It plays an active...

Currently there are more than 370 million self-identified indigenous peoples in some 70 countries around the world. They have made relevant contributions to the world´s heritage thanks to their traditional understanding of ecosystem management. However, indigenous peoples are among the world´s most vulnerable, marginalized and disadvantaged groups in the world. Indigenous peoples have repeatedly asked for a more systematic dialogue with United Nations agencies. In 2010, FAO released the "FAO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples", with the objective to provide guidance to the agency's various technical units and encourage staff in headquarters and in the regions, as well as staff...

Rome - FAO's  governing Council today approved two new Strategies aimed at strengthening FAO's partnerships with civil society organizations on the one hand and the private sector on the other. The Strategies provide a framework for FAO's work with private and civil society partners in pursuit of the Organization's Strategic Objectives and the eradication of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.Thanking the Council for its approval, Director-General José Graziano da Silva said, "We have repeated many times that it is possible to end hunger only if we work together. These strategies show that we are committed to working with...

Geneva - FAO participated to the United Nations System Private Sector Focal Points Meeting 2013, “Strengthening Partnership Synergies for Local Impact”, held from 24 to 25 April at the ILO Headquarters, Geneva, organized together with ILO, OCHA, UNDP, UNGC, UNICEF and UNWOMEN. The meeting brought together experts from a large number of UN agencies and the World Bank as well as business representatives of Multinational Companies and of the Global Compact local network to discuss partnering with extractive industries for local growth, business-led skills development programs, engaging the private sector in preparedness and resilience-building and country-level approaches to implementing global initiatives. The Meeting convened approximately...

Geneva, 15 March, 2013 – A top-level United Nations conference has, for the first time, laid the foundations for practical and proactive national drought policies to increase resilience to the world’s most destructive natural hazard, which is being aggravated by climate change. The High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy marked the first globally-coordinated attempt to move towards science-based drought disaster risk reduction and break away from piecemeal and costly crisis-response, which often comes too late to avert death, displacement and destruction. The meeting issued a declaration encouraging governments to develop and implement national drought management policies consistent with their development objectives. It...