What is Fao - General

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations was founded on 16 October 1945 in Quebec City , Canada , with a mandate to raise levels of nutrition and standards of living, to improve agricultural productivity, and to better the condition of rural populations.

Today, FAO is the largest Specialized Agency in the United Nation System and the Lead Agency for agriculture, forestry, fisheries and rural development. FAO has over 180 Member Nations plus a Member Organization, the European Union. FAO employs more than 1550 professionals and maintains five regional offices, five sub-regional, five liaison offices and over 78 country offices, in addition to its Headquarters in Rome .

Since its inception, FAO has worked to alleviate poverty and hunger by promoting agricultural development, improved nutrition and the pursuit of food security - the access of all people at all times to the food they need for an active healthy life. Today more than 800 million people do not have enough to eat.

A specific priority of the Organization is encouraging sustainable agriculture and rural development, a long-term strategy of increasing food production and food security while conserving and managing natural resources. The aim is to meet the needs of both present and future generations by promoting development that does not degrade the environment and is technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable.

In order to achieve its objectives, FAO performs the following four main responsibilities to:

•  Provide technical advice and assistance to the agricultural community on behalf of Governments and development agencies;
•  Collect, analyze and disseminate information;
•  Advise governments on agricultural policy and planning; and
•  Provide opportunities for governments to meet and discuss food and agricultural problems by creating neutral forum.

Funding of the Organization's work falls under two broad categories - the Regular Programme and the Field Programme. The Regular Programme covers internal operations, including support for fieldwork, advice to governments on policy and planning, and a wide range of development project.

The Field Programme implements FAO's development strategies providing assistance mainly through projects that are usually undertaken in cooperation with national government and other agencies. FAO has three principal sources of funding of its field programmes : Trust Fund, UNDP and TCP. Three quarters of the fund comes from Trust fund sources.

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