Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
1. Since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, has the governing body of your organization taken (or will it take) any decisions or new strategies to guide the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs? If any, please provide a brief summary below, including the overarching vision of your organization.
FAO's mandate is to end hunger and malnutrition across the globe through sustainable agriculture sustainably managing, preserving and restoring natural resources and ecosystems.
The adoption of the 2030 Agenda and SDGs, recognizing the role of food and agriculture systems in addressing the complex set of challenges of sustainable development, provided the opportunity for better integration across different dimensions of FAO's work, and improvement of its programme of work, policy deliberations, and mobilization of resources and capacities, as well as for identifying and strengthening of partnerships with different stakeholders. FAO technical and governing bodies have played a key role in providing guidance and identifying priorities of FAO contribution to the SDGs.
The FAO Conference, main decision making body, ultimately approving the FAO vision, policies and programme of work, was informed by Technical (thematic) bodies (Committees on Fishery, Forest, Agriculture, Trade and Commodity), The Committee on World Food Security, the FAO Regional Conferences, and other intergovernmental platforms of/hosted by FAO such as the Commission on Genetic Resources for food and agriculture, the Codex Alimentarius, the International Treaty of plant and genetic resources, all discussing policy, programmatic and financial priorities of FAO work on SDGs in specific agenda items during 2016/2017 sessions. Technical and regional bodies, as well as the programme and finance committees also discussed ways to fully integrate SDGs into the programme of work and the results framework of FAO.
The Medium Term Plan 2018-21 and Programme of Work and Budget 2018-19, approved by FAO Conference in July 2017, fully incorporate SDGs at targets, outcomes and outputs level and monitors results achieved by the Organization through a wide set of SDG indicators. These two core documents will guide the contribution of the Organization to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in the next four crucial years through a holistic approach to address the complex and interconnected challenges posed by the SDGs.
The Conference recommended FAO to further strengthen support provided to national stakeholders, so as to ensure that food and agriculture are prominently reflected in the nationally identified priorities, as well as to enhancing national stakeholders' capacity on monitoring and reporting and encouraged the Secretariat to monitor progress on engagement in the 2030 Agenda, including through provision of reports to the United Nations High-level Political Forum.
As mentioned before, the Technical Committees and the Regional Conferences of FAO have discussed and provided policy guidance vis a vis the Agenda, sharing a common position along the following lines: Food and agriculture are critical to achieving the SDGs, allowing for integrated approaches and addressing challenges of sustainable development in its three dimensions. In fact, the sustainable development of food and agriculture systems is recognized as a key enabler for SDG implementation, and identified as priority cross-cutting issue in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, identifying the financial and non-financial means of implementation for the 2030 Agenda, and complementing SDG 17, dedicated to the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development and Means of Implementation.
A strong focus on rural development ensures that no one is left behind, contributing to eradication of poverty, still mainly concentrated in rural areas; sustainable rural development also contributes to environmental sustainability, substantially contributing to restoration and sustainable management of natural resources and biodiversity, as well as ensuring economic growth, with agriculture development identified as the most effective. In fact, although agriculture can be the lead sector for overall growth in the agriculture-based countries, it has been vastly underused for development.
Furthermore, the Technical Committees discussed FAO's Common Principles for Sustainable Food and Agriculture as a basis for the policy dialogue and governance arrangements needed to identify sustainable development pathways across the SDGs and requested the Secretariat to develop this principles into comprehensive pathways to engage the agricultural sectors in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda to be presented to the next committees sessions (2018).
2.2 Aligning the structure of the organization with the transformative features of the 2030 Agenda, including any challenges and lessons learned in doing so
In December 2015, in order to enhance programme delivery FAO established full time dedicated Strategic Programme leaders and teams to support design, planning, implementation and monitoring of the programmes, which have a clear set of time-bound results to be delivered by FAO, mainly at country level. These are (i) hunger eradication, food security and nutrition; ii) sustainable agriculture; iii) rural poverty reduction; iv) food systems; v) resilience-building. This approach helps FAO to make maximum use of its comparative advantages and linking its normative work at global level and technical cooperation work at regional and country level. It facilitates constant two-way feedback, building on priority needs of countries and regions, especially those that concern cross-border issues and require interdisciplinary work. At the centre of the priorities lies the overarching vision of eradicating poverty and hunger, assisting countries in prioritizing the needs and fulfilling of rural populations' rights, still accounting for over the 75% of the poorest on the planet, and often the ones left behind. The 5 Strategic Programmes translate the above in concrete programmes and projects in the field, providing a wide range of services, capacities, advise, technical support delivered in collaboration with the UN and other stakehoders. The strategic review of FAO Objectives and programmes benefited from the integrated vision and challenges posed by the 2030 Agenda, and SDGs were fully incorporated in the process. As reported above, the result-framework of FAO has been fully aligned with SDGs, its targets and indicators, used annually to analyse and evaluate results.
Specific mention is due to the dedicated resources devoted to assisting countries in developing capacity towards the complex SDG monitoring system. In January 2017 a new Office of Chief Statistician was created, to better focus on the 21 SDG indicators for which FAO is custodian, and mandated to directly assist countries, mobilize technical and financial resources, and coordinate and support the work of regional bodies with evidence and reliable data, assist and coordinate with the UN Statistical Commissions and the UN Regional Economic Commissions, develop indicator standards and methodologies, monitoring the quality of statistical processes, build capacities in countries in generating, collecting and analysing data, and report annually on SDG progress.
2.3 Readjusting or updating results-based budgeting and management, including performance indicators:
The strategic thinking process undertaken for preparing the Medium Term Plan 2018-2021 provided a basis for re-focusing FAO Strategic Objectives on the commitments of the SDGs. Following an analysis of the full set of 230 indicators and 169 targets of the 17 SDGs, the Organization identified those for which it is best placed to support countries, often identifying partners and stakeholders complementing FAO's expertise and knowledge. The review considered the relationship of the SDG targets to the FAO results chain in three ways: the main challenges to the achievement of the five Strategic Objectives; the relevance of the SDG indicators to the results of the Organization's Strategic Programmes at country level, based on lessons learned in support to governments and stakeholders at field level; and the meaningfulness of SDG indicators for assessing progress in achieving FAO's SOs or Outcomes.
3.1 Mainstreaming the SDGs in development plans and policies or through national sustainable development plans/strategies:
FAO has started collaborating with national governments on the alignment of SDGs with relevant regional development strategies and national sectoral strategies. In Africa, FAO advocated with countries for the inclusion of SDGs in the key regional strategies related to agriculture, such as CAADP/Malabo commitments, as well as their inclusion in respective national strategic and investment plans. At national level, FAO has been advocating for mainstreaming the SDGs in relevant sectoral national strategies, policies and development plans. For example, in Jordan FAO has been providing technical support on developing a national vision of agriculture in the context of the SDGs.
In Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines) the efforts focused on the preparation of national plans of action to localize SDGs both at national and provincional levels. In this context, a regional workshop was organized in 2017, aiming at promoting regular exchange mechanisms on best practices in SDG implementation through national plans of action.
FAO, being a custodian UN agency for 21 SDG indicators, has been providing enhanced assistance to countries in various sectors, related to data and statistical capacity development for SDGs monitoring, including by developing guidelines, delivering training programmes and organizing awareness raising workshops and seminars in the countries. For instance, in Africa, FAO working directly with national statistics offices, raised awareness and developed capacities of 24 countries and regional institutions on statistical tools for estimating SDG-2 indicators and their relevance for food security policies. In Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) national workshops were organized to develop capacities on SDG indicators. In the Near East, data and capacity building support was recently provided to Sudan, Jordan and Lebanon, focusing in particular on modernizing the national agricultural statistics systems. In Asia, a regional advocacy event and workshop was organized in September 2017, bringing together senior experts from national planning and statistical offices of 21 countries to develop capacity on monitoring and methodologies related to SDG-2.
FAO has been using actively the multi-stakeholder partnership platforms at regional and country level to support governments in the implementation of the SDGs. FAO engages with a variety of resource partners, such as Global Environmental Facility (GEF), Green Climate Fund (GFC), African Development Bank (AfDB), private sector and foundations.
In the Near East, FAO has been engaged in productive collaboration with the League of Arab States (LAS) on SDG-2, aiming at monitoring developments in food security and nutrition sectors in LAS countries and identifying countries for joint UN support. FAO also committed to supporting the proposed new coordination committee on SDG-2 within the League of Arab States.
In Asia, FAO supported national governments to adopt a whole-of-society approach, thereby involving stakeholders and civil society, but also media to out to society more broadly, and sharing lessons learned, best practices and experiences.
FAO has supported countries through regional SDG workshops in Africa, Europe and Central Asia, South Asia and North Africa to promote sustainable agriculture and food sectors in the on-going processes of nationalizing SDGs. In total, more than 70 countries have received support through these workshops—raising awareness, promoting dialogue and empowering countries to enhance the role of agricultural and food sectors in SDGs (and Paris Agreement) implementation. The meetings brought together representatives from agriculture, forestry, fisheries and other key sectors, including environment, trade, rural development and health, as well as engaging with civil society, private sector and academia to help build multi-stakeholder partnerships that are needed to achieve the SDGs. These regional workshops were complemented by country level support and has taken various forms according to national priorities (awareness raising, policy review and revision, capacity development, support to Voluntary National Reviews, etc.) and funding (TCPs, LoAs, National Consultants). Support focuses on integration and collaboration in the context of wider UN country support. In addition:
Examples of country level SDG support include:
In Rwanda, with support from European Union, FAO has assisted the Government in developing its fourth National Strategic Programmes for Agriculture Transformation, which has used key SDG indicators to develop its theory of change and results framework. An Integrated approach to agriculture development is also being piloted at local level in Rulindo District to demonstrate the feasibility of an SDG approach on the ground.
In Morocco, FAO has been facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogue on SDG through the SFA principles, and has supported decentralised planning through landscape/territorial approach in the Souss-Massa Region.
In Bangladesh, FAO is supporting SDG action plan and related budgeting at the highest political level. It builds capacity of eight Line Ministries on SDG integration in operational planning and implementation. FAO supports the alignment of Country Investment Programmes with the SDGs, and is set to support the country in integrating the SDGs fully in the upcoming 8th Five Year Plan, the strategic national planning and budgeting tool. In Kyrgyzstan, support is being provided to integrate the SDGs into their new multi-year programme on agriculture. The CPF of KYR is also being strongly aligned with the SDGs.
In Jordan, FAO has worked closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Planning Ministry in preparing the country's Voluntary National Review (VNR) of SDGs for the 2017 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), highlighting the linkages between agriculture and food security.
Across all the regions, FAO has initiated the mainstreaming of the Agenda 2030 and the SDGs in its Country Programming Frameworks (CPFs), which are key guiding tools defining FAO's strategic priority areas of assistance with the national governments. The CPFs are currently being updated to reflect the wide range of activities being performed by country offices to support SDG implementation and reporting.
FAO has started collaborating with national governments on the alignment of SDGs with relevant regional development strategies and national sectoral strategies, policies and development plans.
Examples: In Africa, FAO advocated with countries for the inclusion of SDGs in the key regional strategies related to agriculture, such as CAADP/Malabo commitments, as well as their inclusion in respective national strategic and investment plans. In Asia, the efforts were focused on the preparation of national plans of action to localize SDGs both at national and provincial levels (a workshop organized in 2017 to promote regular exchange on best practices in SDG implementation through national plans of action).
3.3 Data and statistical capacity building:
During the past two years, FAO finalized the methodological development and testing of nine SDG indicators. These methodologies were approved by the Interagency and Expert Group on SDG indicators allowing to start collecting data globally and proving targeted technical assistance to countries. These indicators address some of the most challenging sustainability dimensions for food and agriculture: in particular, indicators 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 (smallholder productivity and incomes), 2.4.1 (sustainable agriculture), 5.a.2 (women's access to land), 6.4.1 (water use efficiency), 12.3.1 (food losses), 14.6.1 (IUU fishing), 14.7.1 (sustainable fisheries as a proportion of GDP) and 14.b.1 (small-scale fisheries). As of March 2019, all 21 SDG indicators under FAO custodianship have international established methodologies. Henceforth, FAO's methodological work for SDG indicators will focus increasingly on data disaggregation methods and on developing complementary indicators for the private sector and project monitoring.
Since the last Conference, FAO organized 28 in-depth training workshops at global and regional levels to strengthen the capacity of NSOs and national statistical systems to produce timely and reliable data to monitor the SDG indicators under FAO custodianship. These training courses built participants' capacity to enhance their understanding of: a) the role of FAO in monitoring the SDGs; b) the methodology for the compilation of the SDG indicators; and c) the international process for data reporting. These workshops have enlarged the pool of SDG monitoring experts and have led to a greater proportion of reporting countries for SDG indicators under FAO custodianship.
In addition, in order to ensure universal access to training material on the SDG indicators, FAO has been developing specific e-learning courses on SDG indicators. By now, 17 courses have been published online, covering 19 SDG indicators, as well as a general introductory course. A number of these courses are already available in more than one language, and FAO is working to ensure that each available course is translated into at least two languages by the end of 2019.
Thirty direct country technical assistance missions to ensure that the SDG indicators under FAO custodianship are adopted by national statistical systems and are produced on a regular basis, complemented these initiatives. These missions helped to establish a network of national SDG indicator focal points to ensure a smooth data reporting to FAO, or provide in-depth, hands-on training on one particular indicator.
Moving forward, FAO plans to scale up capacity development support to countries in order to allow them to produce all the SDG indicators under FAO custodianship. Drawing on a comprehensive SDG Gap Assessment that FAO dispatched to countries at the end of 2018, FAO will mobilize corporate and extra-budgetary resources to tackle the most salient bottlenecks across the entire data cycle, from collection and analysis, to production and dissemination.
3.5 Multi-stakeholder partnerships:
FAO fosters Multi-stakeholder Partnerships (MSP) to build consensus, catalyze technical expertise and facilitate learning and knowledge transfer. FAO hosts, is engaged in and/or convenes, over 30 multi-stakeholder partnerships that are contributing to specific thematic SDG areas and addressing the challenges of sustainable development. The Committee of World Food Security (CFS), hosted by FAO with IFAD and WFP, is known as the foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition for all. In 2018, FAO also launched six multi-stakeholder partnership - called Global Knowledge Products -to strengthen support on specific themes covered by SDG2, SDG6 , SDG13 and SDG 15. These include sustainable agriculture, water, climate change and landscape management.
The strength of these multi stakeholder partnerships is that they reunite the knowledge and expertise of different stakeholders - public and private sectors, producers, research and academic institutions, NGO's social movements and community-based organizations. To name a few, FAO is the secretariat and/or a partner of these MSP which can be covers SDGs themes as follows:
SDG1 = Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition; The Right to Food Forum; Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Economic Growth in Africa
SDG2 = One Health Partnership; The World Banana Forum; Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock, Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicine, Global Knowledge Products on Agroecology, Biodiversity and Family farming;
SDG 13 : Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture;
SDG 6: Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture
SDG 12 : Save Food Initiative
SDG 15 : Global Soil Partnership; Forest- Farm Facility
Furthermore, the 13th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity requested FAO to act as Biodiversity Mainstreaming Platform to facilitate the integration in a structured and coherent manner of actions for the conservation, sustainable use, management and restoration of biological diversity across agricultural sectors at national, regional and international levels.
4.1 Supporting the intergovernmental body of your organization in contributing to the thematic review of the HLPF:
FAO Governing Bodies established under its Constitution (Technical Committees on Agriculture, Commodity Problems, Fisheries, Forestry, Committee on World Food Security and the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture) have provided extensive inputs to the 2016 and 2017 HLPF and are preparing their submission for 2018.
4.3 Helping organize SDG-specific events in the preparatory process:
FAO has considered HLPF as a priority in its work towards supporting countries in achieving the SDGs and has allocated significant resources to engage actively in the forum. In 2017, FAO actively participated in the thematic reviews of the SDGs and in the HLPF as a whole and, together with IFAD and WFP, FAO was actively engaged throughout the various follow-up and review processes that converged in the 2017 HLPF. Support included co-drafting of Executive Committee on Economic and Social Affairs (ECESA+) technical papers for HLPF 2017 , co-organizing an Expert Group Meeting on SDG 2, senior management participation in Expert Group Meetings on interlinkages and SDG 1, supporting the preparation of VNRs and participation in the Regional Fora for Sustainable Development with the preparation of background notes and the organization of discussion segments. The SDG 2 Expert Group Meeting provided inputs to the HLPF, as well as the follow up and review of the 2030 Agenda, with many of its key messages reflected in the Ministerial Declaration and in the debate during the thematic review of SDG2. The Deputy Director General represented FAO at HLPF 2017 in both the technical and the ministerial segments. FAO spoke in the thematic reviews of SDG1; SDG 9; SDG 14 and spoke on behalf of the Rome Based Agencies in the SDG 2 review. FAO was also one of the key partners for the Oceans Conference that reviewed progress on SDG 14.
4.5 Supporting VNR process:
In 2017 FAO allocated a catalytic amount of resources to it regional offices to support countries in their preparation of the VNRs either through the UNCT collective engagement or on an individual basis with the line ministers upon their request. This support included statistical support, analysis, review or facilitation of dialogue with relevant stakeholders.
5. How has your organization cooperated with other UN system organizations to achieve coherence and synergies in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs? In this regard, has your organization launched or intend to launch any joint programmes or projects in collaboration with other UN entities? Are there any results or lessons you would like to highlight that might help improve the design and impact of such efforts? Has your organization participated in any of the following coordination systemwide mechanisms or any other relevant platform - CEB, UNDG, EC-ESA Plus, RCMs, UN-Energy, UN-Water, UN-Ocean, IAEG, IATT? Please specify which and indicate any suggestions you may have about improving collaborations within and across these mechanisms/platforms:
FAO is fully committed to delivering the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Agenda in collaboration with the rest of the UN system. The Organization's partners with other UN agencies, funds and programmes in the development of statistical methods and the provision of support at country level for monitoring the SDGS.
Through its continued engagement in the UNDG Sustainable Development Working Group, FAO contributed to the consolidation of MAPS, UNDAG revised guidelines and the guidelines for monitoring SDGs at country level, all actively promoted across FAO country and regional offices. Through an FAO survey, countries reported increased collaboration with the UN system, and increased demands for support in integrating SDGs in country planning and on establishing monitoring systems for SDGs.
Of particular relevance for FAO is the Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support (MAPS) approach and guidance to UN Country Teams. The MAPS are complementary to the UNDAFs and recognize the need for specialized agencies' expertise on norms, policy, standards and monitoring of progress. However, in spite of its strong policy and normative expertise, FAO was not always invited to MAPS mission being conducted in many countries. The same was reported by other specialized agencies, and this should be corrected in the future.
FAO is also placing particular emphasis on further developing collaboration among the Rome-based agencies. During 2016, the Organization developed with IFAD and WFP a common vision and guiding principles for collaboration among the UN Rome-based Agencies on delivering the 2030 Agenda, which was endorsed by the FAO Council in December 2016 as a useful reference for future joint activities.
Building on its policy, normative and standard-setting expertise, FAO works in close collaboration with UN partners, other sub-regional, regional and international organizations, to provide integrated policy advice and capacity development to the member countries in support of the 2030 Agenda implementation across all the regions. FAO collaborates with the Secretariats of the three Rio Conventions and has and active present during their respective Conference of the Parties as well as through their scientifically advisory bodies.
FAO has published its flagship publication The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018 to report on indicators for targets 2.1 and 2.2 in that monitors two SDG indicators in partnership with IFAD, WFP and for the first time UNICEF and WHO to include a broader focus on nutrition. Other thematic flagship publications are being aligned to SDGs and will be made available to the decision makers and other stakeholders as part of the follow-up and review process for the 2030 Agenda.
FAO collaborates with WHO and OIE under a tripartite to promote cross-sectoral collaboration and increase convergence towards a One Health approach to address risks from zoonoses and other public health threats existing and emerging at the human-animal-ecosystems interface. FAO is also part of the Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance.
In 2017 FAO signed a partnership with the International Trade Centre (ITC) to support improvement of the incomes, livelihoods, sustainability, resilience and nutritional status of small and medium rural agricultural producers by expanding access to productive resources, markets, technology, trade, finance and investment.
FAO is part and actively engages in all the following coordination mechanisms: CEB (and its HLCP and HLCM), UNDG (FAO is part of the core group of the revamped UNSDG), EC-ESA Plus, RCMs, UN-Energy, UN-Water, UN-Ocean, IAEG, IATT.
At regional level:
FAO regional offices have been actively engaged in coordination and collaboration with UN Regional Economic Commissions, thereby leveraging existing mechanisms such as Regional Coordination Mechanisms and other partnership modalities. FAO is also active in regional UNDG coordination, taking part to thematic groups and task force. Increased regional UNDG coordination was instrumental to advance regional discussions in SF forums organized by UNECs.
In the Near East, FAO's Regional Office has initiated the establishment and is currently co-leading the Food Security and Nutrition Working Group on SDG-2, working in partnership with WFP, UNICEF, WHO and the ESCWA. This regional-level coordination resulted in a result-oriented partnership at the country level.
In many African countries these efforts were focused on bringing together the three Rome-based agencies (FAO, WFP and IFAD) in supporting countries to deliver on SDG-2 and the Zero Hunger initiative.
In Latin America, FAO has ongoing joint programmes with other UN Agencies in several countries (El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia), entirely focused on the SDGs.
In Asia, the emphasis is put on collaboration with various regional economic organizations (ASEAN, SAARC), financial institutions (World bank, Asian Development Bank) and specialized international and national research institutions, including CGIAR Centers.
FAO has been an active member of UN-Water and is the lead agency in it in food and agriculture related issues. This includes being a part of the UN-Water team that works on SDG 6 and the linkages between water and other SDGs; an implementing partner in the integrated monitoring initiative for SDG6, entitled GEMI; and chair of the UN-Water group on water scarcity. FAO, in addition, has launched a partnership initiative (WASAG) dealing with water scarcity, which has a number of UN partners. Deputy Director of FAO Land and Water Division will take over the function of UN-Water Vice Chair in August 2018 for a period of two years.
The Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6, called GEMI, was established in 2014 as an inter-agency initiative composed of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), UNICEF, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). GEMI's focus is to integrate and expand existing monitoring efforts on wastewater treatment (SDG indicator 6.3.1) and water quality (6.3.2), water use (6.4.1) and scarcity (6.4.2), integrated water resources management (6.5.1) including transboundary cooperation (6.5.2) and water-related ecosystems (6.6.1). The first phase of GEMI implementation (2015-2018) focuses on the development of monitoring methodologies and other support tools (including pilot testing), a global rollout of SDG 6 monitoring and associated capacity building efforts, as well as the establishment of a global baseline for SDG targets 6.3 to 6.6. It is worth noting that in spite of existing and expected difficulties, the collaboration and coordination among agencies in the implementation of the Initiative under the umbrella of UN-Water is proving to be quite effective and is appreciated by member states. A suggestion for improvement would be to establish regional correspondents for UN-Water, who could be based at the UN Coordinator offices, and who could support and follow more closely the implementation of the joint initiatives.
6. How has your organization engaged with stakeholder groups, both in supporting implementation at the country, regional and global levels, and within your own organization? If yes, please provide main highlights, including any lessons learned:
Partnerships with all major stakeholder groups is considered a key to achieving food and nutrition security. FAO members adopted the Strategy for Partnerships with Civil Society Organizations and the Strategy for Partnerships with Private Sector to strengthen corporate and country-focused engagements with private sector, business enterprises, civil society and NGOs, farmer organizations especially women groups, academia, and parliamentarians. The six main areas of collaboration are: Field programme; Knowledge sharing and capacity development; Policy dialogue; Joint use of resources; Normative activities; and Advocacy and communication and South-South Cooperation.
Since 2013, FAO has forged partnerships with over 120 non-state actors including from Academia, CSOs and Private Sector entities in support of its Strategic Programmes and specific SDGs. At the global level, FAO involves networks and organizations with the broadest possible representation vis-à-vis their constituency and region. At national level, FAO works through the framework of the Country Programme Framework (CPF) and assists governments in identifying key local CSOs that can contribute to priorities set out in the CPF. See http://www.fao.org/partnerships/en/.
Over 2 000 delegates from civil society, private sector and academia have attended the annual CFS and some 1 000 non-state actor delegations participated in the International Conference of Nutrition (ICN-2) in 2014, International Symposia on Agroecology (2014), Biotechnologies (2016), and Nutrition (2016). The space for dialogue and interaction with the stakeholder groups was widely acknowledged and provided strong consensus in the areas to promote achieving the Zero Hunger goal.
FAO has been using actively the multi-stakeholder partnership platforms at regional and country level to support governments in the implementation of the SDGs. FAO engages with a variety of resource partners, such as Global Environmental Facility (GEF), Green Climate Fund (GFC), regional development banks and regional economic integration organizations, private sector and foundations, research institutions.
7. Has your organization organized any conferences, forums or events designed to facilitate exchange of experience, peer and mutual learning? If yes, please provide a brief summary below and include lessons learned and gaps identified based on the outcomes of these events. Please also include any events you plan to organize in the coming years.
Facilitating knowledge exchange and serving as a neutral forum for policy discussions are at the core of FAO's functions and therefore a considerable share of the activities organized by the Organization at global, regional and national level respond to this goal. Therefore providing a detailed account of the events constitutes a difficult task and only some of the events that featured a higher profile.
Scheduled events
International Conference. Halting Deforestation and Increasing Forest Area - from Aspiration to Action (February 2018). The main objective of the conference is to make recommendations, through UNFF13, to the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development on actions to be undertaken globally and by countries to help achieve the SDG and GFG targets of halting deforestation and increasing forest cover.
International Symposium on Agroecology: Scaling Up agroecology to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (April 2018)
Global Symposium on Soil Pollution (May 2018)
High Level Event on Mainstreaming Biodiversity across sectors. (June 2018)
FAO has organized or contributed to the organization of a number of thematic events, focusing specifically on the SDG-2 and the Zero Hunger Challenge, both at national and regional levels.
10. Please indicate one or two endeavor or initiatives you suggest that the UN system organizations could undertake together to support the implementation of the SDGs between now and 2030:
Given that national SDG implementation plans are not yet well coordinated with academia and civil society, UN can serve a common and neutral platform to disseminate knowledge on SDGs to key stakeholders from academia, civil society and specialized research institutions. The Committee on Food Security at FAO proved to be a very effective multi-stakeholder platform in this regard at global level, but more efforts should be taken at national levels.
UN system organizations should take collective efforts to strengthen national capacities for measuring SDG indicators, mostly in developing countries;
UN system organizations should work towards increasing and strengthening the number of UN joint programmes entirely focused on the SDGs, in order to ensure more integrated and coherent support and policy advice to countries, including the implementation of norms and standards.
11. Has your organization established any multi-stakeholder partnerships for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs? If yes, please describe how their performances are being monitored and reviewed? Where do these partnerships get funding and other resources, including human resources?
Partnerships constitute an essential mean to deliver FAO's mandate. The organization has two strategies for partnering with the private sector and the civil society organizations endorsed by its governing bodies. FAO has not stablished a unique multi-stakeholder partnership for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda but has a multiplicity of effective partnership platforms addressing key aspects of food, agriculture and natural resource management. These platforms have demonstrated very effective in tackling complex issued such as soil management, water scarcity or the livestock sector. A non-exhaustive list of multi-stakeholder partnership include the Global Soil Partnership an important platform where global soil issues are discussed and addressed by multiple stakeholders that has delivered key outputs and global public goods such as the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management and the Code of Conduct on the Responsible Use of Fertilizers. The Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock aims at catalyzing multi-stakeholder action to improve the livestock sector's use of natural resources whilst ensuring its contribution to food security and livelihoods by building consensus on the path towards sustainability and catalyzes coherent and collective practice change through dialogue, consultation and joint analysis. The Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG) designed to bring together key players across the globe and across sectors to tackle the collective challenge of using water better in agriculture to ensure food security for all.