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The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and information, and helps developing countries and countries in transition modernize and improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices, ensuring good nutrition and food security for all. Its Latin motto, fiat panis, translates into English as "let there be bread". FAO was founded on 16 October 1945 in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. In 1951 its headquarters were moved from Washington, D.C., United States, to Rome, Italy. As of 11 April, 2006, it had 190 members (189 states and the European Community, List of FAO members). Mission FAO's mandate is to raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy. Achieving food security for all is at the heart of FAO's efforts – to make sure people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. Structure FAO is governed by the Conference of Member Nations, which meets every two years to review the work carried out by the organization and approve a Programme of Work and Budget for the next biennium. The Conference elects a Council of 49 Member Nations to act as an interim governing body. Members serve three-year, rotating terms. The Conference also elects the Director-General to head the agency. FAO is composed of eight departments: Administration and Finance, Agriculture, Economic and Social, Fisheries, Forestry, General Affairs and Information, Sustainable Development and Technical Cooperation. Since 1994, FAO has undergone the most significant restructuring since its founding, to decentralize operations, streamline procedures and reduce costs. Savings of $50 million a year have been realized. Budget Member states froze FAO's budget from 1994 through 2001 at $650 million per biennium. The budget was raised slightly to $651.8 million for 2002-03 and jumped to $749 million for 2004-05, but this nominal increase was seen as a decline in real terms. In November 2005, the FAO governing Conference voted for a two-year budget appropriation of $765.7 million for 2006–2007; once again, the increase would only partial offset rising costs due to inflation. Directors-General
Millennium Development Goals The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all of the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest people. Special Programme for Food Security The Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) is FAO's flagship initiative for reaching the goal of halving the number of hungry in the world by 2015 (presently 852 million people). Through projects in over 100 countries worldwide, the SPFS promotes effective, tangible solutions to the elimination of hunger, undernourishment and poverty. Currently 102 countries are engaged in the SPFS and of these approximately 30 are operating or developing comprehensive National Food Security Programmes. To maximize the impact of its work, the SPFS strongly promotes national ownership and local empowerment in the countries in which it operates. Growing Role in Emergencies FAO is a key player in emergencies. Its focus is on food production and agriculture, reflecting its specialization and responsibility within the United Nations family. Assisting in preventing disaster-related emergencies, providing early warnings of food emergencies and helping in rehabilitation of food production systems are FAO's predominant roles in humanitarian aid. The main forms of FAO's intervention include needs assessments, provision of agricultural inputs and technical assistance for the planning and management of sustainable recovery and rehabilitation of rural production systems. Conscious of the high costs of emergency operations, FAO continuously seeks to prevent disaster-related emergencies; however, should they occur, FAO seeks to mitigate their impact and to accelerate a recovery process that will lead to sustainable agricultural development. FAO’s delivery of relief and rehabilitation assistance has more than tripled in the past ten years. FAO's work in emergencies began in the Sahel region of Africa in the early 1970s and developed quickly after the 1994 conflict in Rwanda. Other emergency activities have ranged from helping vulnerable farmers in Angola, Indonesia and Sierra Leone, ex-soldiers and the rural poor in the Philippines and Tajikistan, small-scale subsistence fishers in Sudan, flood-affected households in Cambodia, Ecuador and Viet Nam, and drought-affected families in Nicaragua and Sri Lanka. FAO is currently engaged in emergency programmes including Tsunami reconstruction, Avian influenza and locust control. Transboundary Pests and Diseases In transboundary animal diseases, FAO was providing leadership and technical expertise as far back as 1954, when foot-and-mouth disease ravaged postwar Europe. Agricultural pests and diseases often migrate or spread across borders and cause major losses and emergencies. In the past, such damage has on occasions been catastrophic, leading to famines and sometimes triggering trade restrictions. Developing countries are frequently unable to react sufficiently quickly to such events, and extensive emergency operations as well as international assistance becomes necessary. Although effective control methods usually exist now against these pests and diseases, such crisis management inevitably involves delays, a low efficiency/cost ratio and an inability to contain the problem at an early stage. In 1994, FAO established an Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES) for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases in order to minimize the risk of such emergencies developing. Another example is The Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme (GREP), which is a time-bound programme to eliminate rinderpest from the world by 2010. It commenced throughout the world in the 1980s with mass immunization campaigns, which extended control to a point where the remaining foci of endemicity are few, distinct and isolated. In the avian influenza crisis that began in Asia in late 2003, FAO's roles are many: technical assistance, policy advice, provision of laboratory equipment, protective clothing and training, agency and donor coordination, contingency planning, technical information and guidelines, and public advocacy. FAO works hand in hand with the World Organization for Animal Health and, because of the threat to human health, with the World Health Organization. Integrated Pest Management During the 1990's, FAO took a leading role in the promotion of integrated pest management for rice production in Asia. Hundreds of thousands of farmers were trained using an approach known as the Farmer Field School (FFS)*. Like many of the programmes managed by FAO, the funds for Farmer Field Schools came from bilateral Trust Funds, with Australia, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland acting as the leading donors. FAO's efforts in this area have drawn praise from NGOs that have otherwise criticised much of the work of the organization. TeleFood Raising awareness about the problem of hunger mobilizes energy to find a solution. In 1997, FAO launched TeleFood, a campaign of concerts, sporting events and other activities to harness the power of media, celebrities and concerned citizens to help fight hunger. Since its start, the campaign has generated close to US$14 million in donations. Money raised through TeleFood pays for small, sustainable projects that help small-scale farmers produce more food for their families and communities. The Right to Adequate Food FAO's Strategic Framework 2000-2015 stipulates that the Organization is expected to take into full account "progress made in further developing a rights-based approach to food security" in carrying out its mission "helping to build a food-secure world for present and future generations." When the Council adopted the Voluntary Guidelines in November 2004, it also called for adequate follow up to the Guidelines through mainstreaming and the preparation of information, communication and training material. 13:15, 4 November 2006 (UTC) International Alliance Against Hunger In June 2002, during the World Food Summit, world leaders reviewed progress made towards meeting the 1996 Summit goal of halving the number of the world's hungry by 2015; their final declaration called for the creation of an International Alliance against Hunger (IAAH) to join forces in efforts to eradicate hunger. Launched on World Food Day, 16 October 2003, the IAAH works to generate political will and concrete actions through partnerships between intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and national alliances. The IAAH is a voluntary association of international organizations, national alliances against hunger, civil society organizations, social and religious organizations and the private sector. The global activities of the IAAH focus on four major themes: advocacy, accountability, resource mobilization and coordination. The International Alliance is made up of the Rome-based UN food organizations – FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) – and representatives of other intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. Individuals cannot directly join the IAAH, though they can work with national alliances against hunger. In less than two years, 36 countries have established national alliances, some of them already very active like those in Brazil, Burkina Faso, France, India and the United States. Goodwill Ambassadors The FAO Goodwill Ambassadors Programme was initiated in 1999. The main purpose of the programme is to attract public and media attention to the unacceptable situation that some 800 million people continue to suffer from chronic hunger and malnutrition in a time of unprecedented plenty. These people lead a life of misery and are denied the most basic of human rights: the right to food. Governments alone cannot end hunger and undernourishment. Mobilization of the public and private sectors, the involvement of civil society and the pooling of collective and individual resources are all needed if people are to break out of the vicious circle of chronic hunger and undernourishment. Each of FAO’s Goodwill Ambassadors – celebrities from the arts, entertainment, sport and academia such as Nobel Prize winner Rita Levi Montalcini, actress Gong Li, singer Miriam Makeba, and soccer player Roberto Baggio, to name a few – has made a personal and professional commitment to FAO’s vision: a food-secure world for present and future generations. Using their talents and influence, the Goodwill Ambassadors draw the old and the young, the rich and the poor into the campaign against world hunger. They aim to make Food for All a reality in the 21st century and beyond. See also FAO Goodwill Ambassadors Regional Offices Subregional Offices Liaison Offices Criticism There has been public criticism of FAO for at least 15 years. In 1990, the US State Department expressed the view that The Food and Agriculture Organization has lagged behind other UN organizations in responding to US desires for improvements in program and budget processes to enhance value for money spent. A year later, in 1991, The Ecologist magazine produced a special issue on FAO, including articles that questioned FAO policies in forestry and aquaculture, and which examined the impact of the Green Revolution in India (the last of these written by Vandana Shiva). In 1996, FAO organised the World Food Summit, attended by 112 Heads or Deputy Heads of State and Government. The Summit concluded with the signing of the Rome Declaration, which established the goal of halving the number of people who suffer from hunger by the year 2015. At the same time, 1,200 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from 80 countries participated in an NGO Forum. The Forum was critical of the growing industrialisation of agriculture and called upon Governments - and FAO - to do more to protect the 'Right to Food' of the poor, rather that protecting the profits of companies involved in agribusiness. The next Food Summit organised by FAO in 2002 was considered to be a waste of time by many of the official participants.. Social movements, farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists, indigenous peoples, environmentalists, women's organizations, trade unions and NGOs expressed their collective disappointment in, and rejection of the official Declaration of the... Summit. In 2004, FAO produced a controversial report called Agricultural Biotechnology: meeting the needs of the poor?. The report claimed that "agricultural biotechnology has real potential as a new tool in the war on hunger". In response to the report, more than 650 organisations from around the world signed an open letter in which they said "FAO has broken its commitment to civil society and peasants' organisations". The letter complained that organisations representing the interests of farmers had not been consulted, that FAO was siding with the biotechnology industry and, consequently, that the report "raises serious questions about the independence and intellectual integrity of an important United Nations agency". The Director General of FAO responded immediately, stating that decisions on biotechology must "be taken at the international level by competent bodies" (in other words, not by non-government organisations). He acknowledged, however, that "biotechnology research is essentially driven by the world's top ten transnational corporations" and "the private sector protects its results with patents in order to earn from its investment and it concentrates on products that have no relevance to food in developing countries". In May 2006, a British newspaper published the resignation letter of Louise Fresco, the Assistant Director General of FAO. In her letter, the widely respected Dr Fresco stated that "the Organization has been unable to adapt to a new era", that "our contribution and reputation have declined steadily" and "its leadership has not proposed bold options to overcome this crisis". October 2006 saw delegates from 120 countries arrived in Rome for The World Food Summit +10. The event was widely criticed by Non-Government Organisations, but largely ignored by the mainstream media. Oxfam called for an end to the talk-festswhile Via Campesina issued a statement that criticised FAO's policy of Food Security. | |||||||
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