About us
FAST Partnership – for people, for climate, for nature.
The FAST Partnership is a multi-stakeholder partnership that aims to catalyze and accelerate the transformation of agriculture and food systems by 2030 for people, climate, and nature. The Partnership was developed to implement activities and achieve the objectives of the FAST Initiative, which was launched by the COP27 Presidency in 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The FAST Partnership is the most consistent COP-to-COP mechanism for agrifood systems. Since 2022, it has worked with all COP Presidencies to ensure consistency during COPs and implementation afterwards. Türkiye (COP31), Brazil (COP30) and Azerbaijan (COP29) act as Co-Chairs of the FAST Partnership. The goals of the Partnership are to improve the quantity and quality of climate finance contributions towards the transformation of agriculture and food systems, to support adaptation efforts, and to maintain a 1.5-degree pathway while ensuring food and economic security for the most vulnerable.
The FAST Partnership is structured around three interlinked PILLARS:
1. Access to finance
Enhance country capacities to identify and access climate finance and investment.
3. Policy support and dialogue
Ensure agrifood systems are fully embedded and prioritized in climate change policies.
Our agrifood systems are the key to catalyzing solutions to tackle climate change and to achieving a more sustainable use of natural resources, but they are not getting the funding they deserve. Furthermore, funding is not reaching vulnerable communities including women, youth, family farmers, and Indigenous Peoples.
A recent FAO report reveals that while overall climate-related development finance grew by 12 percent between 2022 and 2023 across sectors, finance for agrifood systems stagnated with a mere one percent increase. Their share of the total climate-related development finance almost halved between 2009–2023.
As the world's most vulnerable countries and communities struggle with mounting hunger in the face of the coupled climate and biodiversity crises, boosting both the quantity and quality of investment, and ensuring countries have the right policies and monitoring frameworks in place is essential to scale up ambitious agrifood systems transformation. To strengthen the response to these pressing challenges, FAO is hosting the Task Force of the FAST Partnership and facilitating its implementation.
The FAST Partnership is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ) and is facilitated by FAO.
However, the success and strength of the FAST Partnership depend on its diverse range of Members and partners who bring their unique expertise and know-how to accelerate the transformation of agrifood systems and reach the most vulnerable.
Current Members include governments, intergovernmental organizations, UN agencies, civil society organizations, youth and farmers’ organizations, and global and regional networks. See Members.
The FAST Partnership serves as an accelerator to transform agrifood systems by leveraging global and regional initiatives and by fostering COP-to-COP collaboration.
To achieve its objectives, the FAST Partnership relies on a strong governance structure composed of five main elements: (i) a Task Force acting as a coordination and facilitation unit, (ii) a Board and up to three Co-Chairs (representing COP Presidencies), (iii) Pillars, (iv) Members of the FAST Partnership, and (v) Flagship Programmes: Harmoniya and RAIZ.
Observers engage with the FAST Partnership to follow its work, exchange information, and contribute to discussions where relevant, and may include entities considering future membership. Technical and Knowledge Partners collaborate with the FAST Partnership and its Flagship Programmes on specific technical activities. Neither status confers membership, governance, decision-making authority, or representational roles within the Partnership.
See Terms of Reference and Operational guidelines of the Partnership for more information.
Structure
