Partnerships
FAO is member of many pivotal international, intergovernmental and multi-sector partnerships including the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and related initiatives such as GEOGLAM for a Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative. These partnerships coordinate and harmonize data, methodologies and monitoring systems to improve and promote standards, interoperability of systems, data validation and calibration of instruments.
FAO is also actively involved in initiatives to better gather, use, coordinate and apply geospatial data within the United Nations, for the benefits of its many mandates. These include the UN Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG) and the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM). It has also recently partnered with the UN Environment to protect the health of ecosystems and develop more sustainable food systems. One priority is improving and ensuring access to data, statistics and indicators for tracking natural use and progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and for providing evidence-based information and methodologies to back the science-policy interface.
FAO and Google have agreed a three-year partnership designed to foster innovation and expertise, and sharply broaden access to easy-to-use digital tools.