FAO in review: Upholding the pillars of FAO for a better world

The FAO Constitution inscribed on a wall at the Entrance to FAO headquarters in Rome © FAO/Pier Paolo Cito

Agrifood systems’ challenges are everyone’s challenges. This also applies to FAO Members and staff around the world – we are in the same boat. As emphasised by Director General QU Dongyu from the beginning of his tenure 40 months ago, “Only by working together is it possible to build a modern and dynamic FAO to make agrifood systems MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable.”

In order to move forward as ‘One FAO’, over the past three years we have seen a repositioning of FAO’s work centred on the FAO Basic Texts (2017), including the FAO Constitution and the General Rules of the Organization. Representatives of Members and employees have developed a solid understanding of the centrality of FAO’s ‘rules-based’ nature, and FAO Management has encouraged decision-making around these central pillars in order to further the Organization’s mandate, which includes raising levels of nutrition and standards of living, increasing efficiency of food production and distribution, bettering conditions for rural populations, and contributing to ensuring humanity’s freedom from hunger.

The FAO Legal Office contributes to this in a number of ways. It provides legal advice aimed at ensuring all FAO activities are carried out in accordance with its Basic Texts and its status as a UN specialized Agency. It also advises on regulatory measures, standards and international instruments regulating all aspects of food and nutrition.

The Legal Counsel, Donata Rugarabamu, has observed that “We sometimes are guilty of not fully acknowledging the unique and important role of FAO in the international rules-based system. For the Organization to retain this role, maintain its reputation for impartiality and technical excellence, and deliver its mandate correctly and effectively, all those who collectively constitute FAO – its Members and employees – need to know and understand the rules that drive and govern its activities”. The legal framework of FAO is an intricate governance mechanism which has been carefully defined by its Members to clarify roles and responsibilities. The renewed focus on the Basic Texts has reminded all those who have an interest in FAO that we do not address technical matters or issues of policy in a vacuum.

Significant steps have also been taken towards implementing appropriate accountability to ensure that FAO's operations are able to deliver, achieve results and make a difference, providing real added value to all its Members. “The Office of Evaluation independently conducts an average of 50 evaluations annually”, said Qu Dongyu, and upon its recommendation that FAO further and more fully align its strategy with the SDGs, “the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 was developed to fully support the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Beth Crawford, Director of the Office of Strategy, Programme and Budget, at FAO Council, FAO Headquarters ©FAO/Alessia Pierdomenico

A framework for success

The FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 was developed through a thoroughly inclusive and transparent consultation process over nearly 18 months. This included sessions of several FAO governing bodies, such as the Programme Committee, Joint Meeting of the Programme and Finance Committees, Council, Regional Conferences and Technical Committees, and finally the FAO Conference in June 2021, when the Framework was finally endorsed. The consultation process also benefited from numerous informal meetings with Members and inputs from all parts of the Organization.

The Strategic Framework 2022-31 sets out the Director-General’s vision of building a dynamic FAO for a better world while remaining committed to the Organization’s central aspirations, mandate and mission. It puts at its centre supporting the Agenda 2030 through agrifood systems transformation for Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment, and a Better Life – the Four Betters – leaving no one behind.

The Four Betters represent FAO’s vision of the interconnected economic, social and environmental dimensions of agrifood systems, as well as an organizing principle for how the Organization intends to contribute directly to the achievement of the SDGs, particularly SDG 1 (No poverty), SDG 2 (Zero hunger), and SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities). As such, the Four Betters also encourage a strategic and systems-oriented approach within all FAO’s interventions. In this sense, under the Four Betters, the Strategic Framework also established 20 Programme Priority Areas to guide the implementation of FAO programmes around the world.

Beth Crawford, Director of the Office of Strategy, Programme and Budget, said, “Central to the implementation approach of the Strategic Framework is that it places a big emphasis on improved ways of working and broad ownership and buy-in across all of FAO.  It is exciting to see how FAO offices in all locations are drawing upon the Framework to actively inform their prioritization and programmatic decisions and finding ways to best leverage FAO's comparative advantage to respond to development challenges at the various levels: global, regional and country.”

The FAO Core Leadership Team has been championing the Four Betters to promote cross-sectoral strategic coordination and to create a common vision for the delivery of the Strategic Framework 2022-31. This strategic coordination ensures coherency in FAO’s work from country to global level for improved outcomes and impact.

It is through these top-down and bottom-up approaches that FAO wants to ensure that the needs coming from Members, as well as the Organization’s global mandates and normative strengths, are well embedded to provide maximum support in transforming agrifood systems with particular focus on the country level, where the Organization can really make a difference to the lives of the most vulnerable people.