Publications
FAO Strategy for Partnerships with Civil Society Organizations
Publication Year: 2015 Publisher: FAO
Food security and nutrition and sustainable agriculture
Related Goals
Multi-stakeholder partnerships
Related Goals
Background
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is convinced that hunger and malnutrition can be eradicated in our lifetime. To meet the Zero Hunger Challenge, political commitment and major alliances with key stakeholders are crucial.
Only through effective collaboration with governments, civil society, private sector, academia, research centres and cooperatives, and making use of each other’s knowledge and comparative advantages, can food insecurity be defeated.
To act upon this commitment, one of my priorities as FAO Director- General has been to strengthen partnerships with other development actors. This strategy is a step forward in this direction and will
help assure that our joint efforts can have a greater positive impact in the fight against hunger and for sustainable development.
Civil society in all its various forms - social movements, member based organizations, non-governmental organizations and formal and informal associations - has demonstrated its ability to mobilize, campaign and launch initiatives that seek social justice, respect for human rights and a life with dignity without
poverty and hunger. But besides their work on advocacy, civil society organizations have technical and grassroots knowledge that is both context specific and globally important. Their concerns and work often coincide with FAO’s work and mandate.
Evidence has shown that the creation of more inclusive fora where stakeholders’ voices are expressed has helped certain countries to make strides in hunger reduction. These fora have enabled greater participation, transparency, inclusion and plurality in policy discussions, thus leading to increased ownership of decisions made that ultimately will affect people’s future.
Only through effective collaboration with governments, civil society, private sector, academia, research centres and cooperatives, and making use of each other’s knowledge and comparative advantages, can food insecurity be defeated.
To act upon this commitment, one of my priorities as FAO Director- General has been to strengthen partnerships with other development actors. This strategy is a step forward in this direction and will
help assure that our joint efforts can have a greater positive impact in the fight against hunger and for sustainable development.
Civil society in all its various forms - social movements, member based organizations, non-governmental organizations and formal and informal associations - has demonstrated its ability to mobilize, campaign and launch initiatives that seek social justice, respect for human rights and a life with dignity without
poverty and hunger. But besides their work on advocacy, civil society organizations have technical and grassroots knowledge that is both context specific and globally important. Their concerns and work often coincide with FAO’s work and mandate.
Evidence has shown that the creation of more inclusive fora where stakeholders’ voices are expressed has helped certain countries to make strides in hunger reduction. These fora have enabled greater participation, transparency, inclusion and plurality in policy discussions, thus leading to increased ownership of decisions made that ultimately will affect people’s future.
