Apply now for the 2025 Achievement Award
Selection and Eligibility Criteria
The FAO Conference, at its forty-second Session held in June 2021 decided that a “FAO Award for Achievement” be established for presentation during the annual World Food Day celebrations. It would be conferred upon any entity or individual including FAO teams or employees.
Nature of the Award
- a scroll describing the achievements of the recipient institution and/or an award;
- a cash prize of USD 10 000.
The call is now open!
The FAO Award for Achievement will recognize specific professional achievements in various sectors and programmes related to the work of the Organization, with due regard to areas where FAO undertakes extensive work, such as fisheries and aquaculture, biodiversity, environment, forestry, climate, land and water, animal and plant health, FAO/WHO Center, FAO/IAEA Center and Codex Alimentarius. It would be conferred upon any entity or individual, including FAO teams or employees, for example, for outstanding technical cooperation or humanitarian work at country level.
In the spirit of Conference Resolution 11/21 the winning entity or individual should be one that has implemented a programme having a model character and which has either:
a. outstanding contribution to the advancement of the country or countries to which he or she was assigned, in particular in the fields of sustainable agricultural and rural development or food security. This contribution must be clearly identifiable and may take the form of technical innovations in agriculture, fisheries or forestry; institutional or administrative improvements; discoveries of new resources as a result of research, surveys or other investigations; establishment of training and research institutions;
b. filled a critical gap and met successfully short-term technical assistance needs which could not be covered by other sources of support; and/or
c. produced sustainable outcome and outputs and had particular catalytic effects such as increased mobilization of investment funds, large-scale follow-up action, policy and institutional changes; and/or
d. particular emphasis will be given to the nature, the sustainability and the replicability of the achievements and the catalytic effects generated.The procedures and general guidelines to be followed are set out below:
Submission of Nominations
Proposals for nominations presented by national, regional or global institutions should be submitted to FAO Representatives (in countries with an accredited FAO Representative) or to FAO Regional and Subregional Representatives (in countries with no accredited FAO Representative), as appropriate, for submission to the Awards Secretariat by 31 January 2025. If the nomination form is submitted by an individual or institution, an endorsement or letter of support from a FAO Representative (email or signed letter) should be attached or the application form will not be considered valid. All endorsements or letters of support will be verified.
The Natural Resources and Sustainable Production Stream will support the Secretariat, particularly with regard to determining the eligibility of each nomination and its sustainability and catalytic effects.
An ad hoc interdepartmental Screening Committee chaired by the Deputy Director-General and comprising the FAO core leadership group, all Assistant Directors-General at headquarters and regional level, the Legal Counsel and the Director of the Office of Communications, as Secretary, will review the list of nominations submitted to it by the Award Secretariat, and establish a short-list of three nominations. The Chairperson of the Screening Committee will submit the short-list to the Chairperson of the Selection Committee.
The Selection Committee, chaired by the Director-General, and comprising the Independent Chairperson of the Council, the Chairperson of the Programme Committee and the Chairperson of the Finance Committee, will make a final decision on the basis of the short-list submitted by the Screening Committee.
The Award is conferred for achievements completed during the biennium preceding the current one. The Awards for the achievements during the 2023-2024 biennium will be presented by the Director-General to a representative of the recipient institution during a special ceremony, held on World Food Day.
The Representative of the selected entity will be invited to FAO headquarters in Rome for the ceremony, the cost of travel and per diem being borne by the Organization.
Nomination Form
PLEASE SUBMIT by 17 February 2025
Please note: