Civil Society Organizations have had a leading role in the development and promotion of the FAO Right to Food Initiative. In a successful culmination to the process of debate and negotiations governments adopted Voluntary Guidelines to the Right to Food at the FAO Committee on World Food Security in September 2004.

Since the first World Food Summit in 1996, support for the right to food and the right of freedom from hunger has gained momentum on the international agenda. Civil Society Organizations have played a crucial role in defining the concept and in proposing means of implementation, as well as in advocating a code of conduct. At the World Food Summit: five years later in 2002, the FAO's Members reaffirmed "the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food" in their final declaration. Also, an intergovernmental working group was given the task to develop a set of Voluntary "Right to Food" Guidelines to aid governments in achieving their common goal of a world free from hunger. The working group mandate explicitly stated that the work was to be done in close collaboration with the Civil Society, which had a prominent role throughout the process of negotiation. With the approval of the guidelines in September 2004 and subsequent adoption at the FAO Council in November 2004, implementation will begin in close collaboration with civil society.