FAO has renewed its partnership agreement with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) - Organics International, extending the collaboration until 2024.

The partnership, originally formalized in 2018, has provided a framework for working together to develop, promote and strengthen work to improve the livelihoods of populations living in rural areas, in particularly communities and households of smallholder farmers, forest dwellers and fishers and fish workers. Together, FAO and IFOAM have been working to ensure more inclusive food and agriculture systems at local, national and international levels through common actions to improve market access and value chains for small-scale producers, conservation and use of biodiversity, reduce food loss and waste and promote animal welfare.

Over the past three years, IFOAM has actively collaborated with FAO in various areas of work, including Agroecology, the Mountain Partnership, the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables 2021, the Global Soil Partnership and the UN Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028.

In particular, FAO and IFOAM have been working to develop a new methodology to assess the extent of agroecological practices in place in a given territory or country, building off of IFOAM’s work on assessing certified organic production, and FAO’s work in Agroecology. The new methodology was piloted in Ghana and Trinidad and Tobago.

In 2019, together with the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, IFOAM contributed to workshops and regional trainings in Asia and Latin America regions to establish a Global Network of mountain-specific Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS).

IFOAM also contributed to the organization of the 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 Summer School “GROW – Agrobiodiversity in a Changing Climate” together with the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, Sapienza University, Bioversity International and other partners, providing contents and lectures on organic agriculture in fragile ecosystems and Participatory Guarantee Systems.

With the renewal of this partnership, FAO and IFOAM have committed to continue their collaboration in these areas as well as in collecting evidence, promoting the exchange of existing practices, methods and good experiences on sustainable food consumption, agroecology, strengthening producers’ organizations and cooperatives, promoting animal welfare, supporting vulnerable groups and strengthening institutional linkages.

This partnership will comprehensively contribute to all of the Four Betters of FAO’s new Strategic Framework.