More than 50 governments and international organizations donate to the development and food security projects of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) through the Organization's trust fund programme.

The Trust Funds coordinated by the Policy Assistance Division are:

• The Government Cooperative Programme
• Unilateral Trust Funds
• FAO Trust Fund for Food Security and Food Safety

The benefits of FAO trust funds for donors range from accountability and transparency in all stages of a project, to the freedom of donors to choose the country or region in which a project will start, as well as the type of project.

Donors are also able to pool resources with other donor countries to target particular areas within FAO's Special Action Programmes such as its Food Security and Food Safety programmes that have larger financing requirements.

Trust fund projects often bring donors other practical advantages such as training their young professionals in the field as well as exchanging successful technologies and technical experts often through South-South cooperation initiatives. Donors bring a wide range of expertise and specialized knowledge to trust fund projects.

In a climate of tighter aid budgets, FAO is also seeking to broaden its donor base. As a consequence, FAO has reached out to non-traditional emerging donors such as the OPEC fund, Turkey, the Czech Republic and South Korea as well as to non-governmental organizations, foundations, other UN agencies and the private sector.

The FAO trust fund programme guarantees donors:

• broad-based technical expertise;
• operational skills;
• global infrastructure;
• a reserve of knowledge accumulated since 1945;
• ability to give neutral advice and act as an honest broker; and
• a roster of international experts.