The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO, or ONUAA for its French French is a Romance language spoken as a first language by about 136 million people worldwide. Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, and an additional 200 million speak it as an acquired foreign language. French speaking communities are present in 57 countries and territories. Most native speakers of the language live in equivalent Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture) is a specialised agency of the United Nations The United Nations Organization or simply United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed The term developed country is used to describe countries that have a high level of development according to some criteria. Which criteria, and which countries are classified as being developed, is a contentious issue and is surrounded by fierce debate. Economic criteria have tended to dominate discussions. One such criterion is income per capita; and developing countries Developing country is a term generally used to describe a nation with a low level of material well being. There is no single internationally-recognized definition of developed country, and the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries, with some developing countries having high average standards of living, 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 modernise and improve agriculture Agriculture is the production of food and goods through farming. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and stratified societies. The study of agriculture is known as, forestry Forestry is the art and science of managing forests, tree plantations, and related natural resources. The main goal of forestry is to create and implement systems that allow forests to continue a sustainable continuation of environmental supplies and services. The challenge of forestry is to create systems that are socially accepted while and fisheries Generally, a fishery is an entity engaged in raising and/or harvesting fish, which is determined by some authority to be a fishery. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats, purpose of the activities or a practices, ensuring good nutrition Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary (in the form of food) to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet and food security Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food-secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. According to the World Resources Institute, global per capita food production has been increasing substantially for the past several decades. In 2006, MSNBC reported that for all. Its Latin Latin or sometimes Roman is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Although often considered a dead language, in view of the fact that it has no native, fluent speakers, Latin continues to be taught in schools and has been, and currently is, used in the process of new word production in modern languages from many motto, fiat panis, translates into English as "let there be bread". As of 8 August 2008[update], FAO has 191 members states along with the European Union The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 upon the foundations of the European Communities. With over 500 million citizens, the EU combined generated an estimated 28% share (US$ 16.5 and the Faroe Islands b. ^ The Faeroes, Greenland and Iceland were formally Norwegian possessions until 1814 despite 400 years of Danish monarchy beforehand, which are associate members[1].

Contents

Structure and finance

FAO was established on 16 October 1945 in Quebec City Quebec , French: Québec ([keˈbɛk] ( listen)), also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City (French: Ville de Québec) is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec – after Montreal, about 233 kilometres (145 mi) to the southwest. As of the 2006, Quebec Quebec is the second most populous province, after Ontario. Most inhabitants live in urban areas near the Saint Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, the capital. English-speaking communities and English-language institutions are concentrated in the west of the island of Montreal but are also significantly present in the Outaouais, the, Canada The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three. In 1951 its headquarters were moved from Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. The City of Washington was originally a separate municipality within the Territory of Columbia until an act of Congress in 1871 effectively merged the City and the, United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language, to Rome Rome (English pronunciation: /ˈroʊm/; Italian: Roma listen , pronounced [ˈroːma]; Latin: Rōma) is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality (central area), with over 2.7 million residents in 1,285.3 km2 (496.3 sq mi). While the population of the urban area was estimated by Eurostat to have been 3.46, Italy Italy (pronounced /ˈɪtəli/ ; Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a country located partly on the European Continent and partly on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine. The agency is directed by the Conference of Member Nations, which meets every two years to review the work carried out by the organization and to approve a Programme of Work and Budget for the next two-year period. The Conference elects a council of 49 member states (serve three-year rotating terms) that acts as an interim governing body, and the Director-General, that heads the agency.

FAO is composed of eight departments: Administration and Finance, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Economic and Social Development, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Forestry, Knowledge and Communication, Natural Resource Management and Technical Cooperation.[2]

Beginning in 1994, FAO underwent the most significant restructuring since its founding, to decentralize operations, streamline procedures and reduce costs. As result, savings of about US$50 million a year were realized.

FAO headquarters in Rome Rome (English pronunciation: /ˈroʊm/; Italian: Roma listen , pronounced [ˈroːma]; Latin: Rōma) is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality (central area), with over 2.7 million residents in 1,285.3 km2 (496.3 sq mi). While the population of the urban area was estimated by Eurostat to have been 3.46.

Budget

FAO's Regular Programme budget is funded by its members, through contributions set at the FAO Conference. This budget covers core technical work, cooperation and partnerships including the Technical Cooperation Programme, knowledge exchange, policy and advocacy, direction and administration, governance and security.

The FAO budget for the biennium 2008-2009 is US$929.8 million, adjusted to the Euro/US dollar exchange rate fixed by the FAO Conference. The present budget followed four consecutive no-growth budgets. Member states froze FAO's budget from 1994 through 2001 at US$650 million per biennium. The budget was raised slightly to US$651.8 million for 2002-03 and jumped to US$749 million for 2004-05, but this nominal increase was seen as a decline in real terms[3]. In November 2005, the FAO governing Conference voted for a two-year budget appropriation of US$765.7 million for 2006–2007; once again, the increase only partially offset rising costs due to inflation.[4]

Directors-general

Jacques Diouf Jacques Diouf is a Senegalese diplomat with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. He has served as Director-general of the FAO since replacing Edouard Saouma of Lebanon in January 1994, FAO Director General since 1994.

Deputy directors-general

  • William Nobel Clark (US) : 1948.
  • Sir Herbert Broadley (UK) : 1948 - 1958.
  • Friedrich Traugott Wahlen Friedrich Traugott Wahlen was a Swiss politician (Switzerland) : 1958 - 1959.
  • Norman C. Wright (UK) : 1959 - 1963.
  • Oris V. Wells (US) : 1963 - 1971.
  • Roy I. Jackson (US) : 1971 - 1978.
  • Ralph W. Phillips (US) : 1978 - 1981.
  • Edward M. West (UK) : 1981 - 1985.
  • Declan J. Walton (Ireland) : 1986 - 1987.
  • Howard Hjort (US) : 1992 - 1997.
  • Vikram J. Shah (ad personam) (UK) : 1992 - 1995.
  • David A. Harcharik (US) : 1998 - 2007.
  • James G. Butler (US) : 2008 - current.

FAO offices

World headquarters

The world headquarters are located in Rome Rome (English pronunciation: /ˈroʊm/; Italian: Roma listen , pronounced [ˈroːma]; Latin: Rōma) is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality (central area), with over 2.7 million residents in 1,285.3 km2 (496.3 sq mi). While the population of the urban area was estimated by Eurostat to have been 3.46, in the former seat of the Department of Italian East Africa Italian East Africa was a short-lived (1936-1941) Italian colony in Africa consisting of Ethiopia (recently occupied after the Second Italo-Abyssinian War) and the established colonies of Italian Somaliland and Eritrea held in the name of Victor Emmanuel III of the Kingdom of Italy. In August 1940, British Somaliland was conquered and annexed to. One of the most notable features of the building was the Axum Obelisk which stood in front of the agency seat, although just outside of the territory allocated to FAO by the Italian Government. It was taken from Ethiopia Ethiopia (Ge'ez: ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōṗṗyā) is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. Officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, it is the second-most populous nation in Africa with over 79.2 million people and the tenth-largest by area with its 1,100,000 km2. The capital is Addis Ababa. Ethiopia is by Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, KSMOM GCTE was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism's troops in 1937 as a war chest, and returned on 18 April 2005.

Regional offices

Subregional offices

Liaison Office for North America in Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. The City of Washington was originally a separate municipality within the Territory of Columbia until an act of Congress in 1871 effectively merged the City and the

Liaison offices

Programmes and achievements

World Summit on Food Security

The World Summit on Food Security took place in Rome, Italy, between 16 and 18 November 2009. The decision to convene the summit was taken by the FAO Council, at the proposal of FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf Jacques Diouf is a Senegalese diplomat with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. He has served as Director-general of the FAO since replacing Edouard Saouma of Lebanon in January 1994. Sixty Heads of State and Government attended the summit. Countries unanimously adopted a declaration pledging renewed commitment to eradicate hunger from the earth at the earliest possible date.[5]

FAO response to food crisis

In December 2007, FAO launched its Initiative on Soaring Food Prices to help small producers raise their output and earn more. Under the initiative, FAO contributed to the work of the UN High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Crisis, which produced the Comprehensive Framework for Action. FAO has carried out projects in over 25 countries and inter-agency missions in nearly 60, scaled up its monitoring through the Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture, provided policy advice to governments while supporting their efforts to increase food production, and advocated for more investment in agriculture. It has also worked hand-in-hand with the European Union. One example of its work is a US$10.2 million scheme to distribute and multiply quality seeds in Haiti[6], which has significantly increased food production, thereby providing cheaper food and boosting farmers' incomes.

FAO/EU partnership

In May 2009, FAO and the European Union signed an initial aid package worth €125 million (US$170 million) to support small farmers in countries hit hard by rising food prices. The aid package falls under the EU’s €1 billion Food Facility, set up with the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Crisis and FAO to focus on programmes that will have a quick but lasting impact on food security. FAO is receiving a total of around €200 million for work in 25 countries, of which €15.4 million goes to Zimbabwe[7].

Food security programmes

The Special Programme for Food Security is FAO's flagship initiative for reaching the goal of halving the number of hungry in the world by 2015 (currently estimated at close to 1 billion people), as part of its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. They include reducing extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting disease epidemics such as AIDS, and developing a global partnership. Through projects in over 100 countries worldwide, the programme promotes effective, tangible solutions to the elimination of hunger, undernourishment and poverty. Currently 102 countries are engaged in the programme and of these approximately 30 have begun shifting from pilot to national programmes. To maximize the impact of its work, FAO strongly promotes national ownership and local empowerment in the countries in which it operates.

Emergency response

FAO helps countries prevent, mitigate, prepare for and respond to emergencies. FAO focuses on strengthening capacity for disaster preparedness and ability to mitigate impact of emergencies on food security, by forecasting and providing early warning of adverse conditions, assessing needs and devising programmes which promote the transition from relief to reconstruction and development, improving analysis of underlying causes of crises, and strengthening local capacities to cope with risks. An example of its work was a recent report outlining poor crop prospects in eastern Africa[8].

Early warning of food emergencies

FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning and Information System (GIEWS) monitors world food supply/demand and provides the international community with prompt information on crop prospects and the food security Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food-secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. According to the World Resources Institute, global per capita food production has been increasing substantially for the past several decades. In 2006, MSNBC reported that situation[9] on a global, regional and country-by-country basis. In case of impending food emergencies, the system dispatches rapid crop and food supply assessment missions, often jointly with the World Food Programme, and sometimes as a precursor to further intervention and assistance.

Integrated pest management

During the 1990s, FAO took a leading role in the promotion of integrated pest management These methods are performed in three stages: prevention, observation, and intervention. It is an ecological approach with a main goal of significantly reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides while at the same time managing pest populations at an acceptable level for rice production in Asia Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population. During the 20th century Asia's population nearly quadrupled. Hundreds of thousands of farmers were trained using an approach known as the Farmer Field School (FFS) [18]. 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 Non-governmental organization is a term that has become widely accepted as referring to a legally constituted, non-governmental organization created by natural or legal persons with no participation or representation of any government. In the cases in which NGOs are funded totally or partially by governments, the NGO maintains its non-governmental that have otherwise criticized much of the work of the organization.

Transboundary pests and diseases

FAO established an Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases in 1994, focusing on the control of diseases like rinderpest, foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu by helping governments coordinate their responses. One key element is the Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme, which has advanced to a stage where large tracts of Asia and Africa have now been free of the cattle disease rinderpest for an extended period of time. Meanwhile Locust Watch monitors the worldwide locust situation and keeps affected countries and donors informed of expected developments.

International Plant Protection Convention

FAO created the International Plant Protection Convention or IPPC in 1952. This international treaty organization works to prevent the international spread of pests and plant diseases. Among its functions are the maintenance of lists of plant pests, tracking of pest outbreaks, and coordination of technical assistance between member nations. As of July 2009, 173 governments had adopted the treaty.

Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building

The Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building or GIPB is a global partnership dedicated to increasing plant breeding capacity building. The mission of GIPB is to enhance the capacity of developing countries to improve crops for food security and sustainable development through better plant breeding and delivery systems. The ultimate goal is to ensure that a critical mass of plant breeders, leaders, managers and technicians, donors and partners are linked together through an effective global network. Increasing capacity building for plant breeding in developing countries is critical for the achievement of meaningful results in poverty and hunger reduction and to reverse the current worrisome trends. Plant breeding is a well recognized science capable of widening the genetic and adaptability base of cropping systems, by combining conventional selection techniques and modern technologies. It is essential to face and prevent the recurrence of crises such as that of the soaring food prices and to respond to the increasing demands for crop based sources of energy.

Codex Alimentarius

FAO and the World Health Organization created the Codex Alimentarius Commission The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations relating to foods, food production and food safety. Its name derives from the Codex Alimentarius Austriacus. Its texts are developed and maintained by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a body that was established in 1963 to develop food standards, guidelines and texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme. The main aims of the programme are protecting consumer health, ensuring fair trade and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.

FAO statistics

The FAO Statistical Division produces FAOSTAT The FAOSTAT system is one of FAO’s most important corporate systems. It is a major component of FAO’s information systems, contributing to the organization’s strategic objective of collecting, analyzing, interpreting and disseminating information relating to nutrition, food and agriculture. It is at the core of the World Agricultural, an on-line multilingual database currently containing over 3 million time-series records from over 210 countries and territories covering statistics on agriculture, nutrition, fisheries, forestry, food aid, land use and population. The Statistical Division also produces data on World Agricultural Trade Flows. Some of this data comes from projects like Africover.

Investment in agriculture

FAO's technical cooperation department hosts an Investment Centre that promotes greater investment in agriculture and rural development by helping developing countries identify and formulate sustainable agricultural policies, programmes and projects. It mobilizes funding from multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, regional development banks and international funds as well as FAO resources.

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$28 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 projectsprovide tangible resources, such as fishing equipment, seeds and agricultural implements. They vary enormously, from helping families raise pigs in Venezuela, through creating school gardens in Cape Verde and Mauritania or providing school lunches in Uganda and teaching children to grow food, to raising fish in a leper community in India.

The Right to 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.

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 World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on 16 October in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945. It is also the Food Engineer day, 16 October 2003, the IAAH works to generate political will and concrete actions through partnerships between intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations and national alliances. The IAAH is a voluntary association of international organisations, national alliances against hunger, civil society organisations, social and religious organisations 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 organisations – FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development The International Fund for Agricultural Development , a specialized agency of the United Nations, was established as an international financial institution in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. IFAD is dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries. Seventy-five per cent of the world’s poor live (IFAD) and the World Food Programme The World Food Programme is the food aid branch of the United Nations, and the world's largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger worldwide.. WFP provides food, on average, to 90 million people per year, 58 million of whom are children. From its headquarters in Rome and more than 80 country offices around the world, WFP works to help (WFP) – and representatives of other intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations. 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.

FAO 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 1 billion 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 Rita Levi-Montalcini , Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian neurologist who, together with colleague Stanley Cohen, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of Nerve growth factor (NGF). Since 2001, she has also served in the Italian Senate as a Senator for Life, actress Gong Li Gong Li is a Chinese-born film actress. Gong first came into international prominence through close collaboration with Chinese director Zhang Yimou and is credited with helping bring Chinese cinema to Europe and the United States, the late singer Miriam Makeba Miriam Makeba was a South African singer and civil rights activist. The Grammy Award winning artist is often referred to as Mama Afrika, and soccer players Roberto Baggio Roberto Baggio is a retired Italian footballer. In his career, he played for Fiorentina, Juventus, AC Milan and Internazionale. In 1993, Baggio won both the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year. He is the only Italian player ever to score in three World Cups. Baggio is known as Il Divin Codino (The Divine Ponytail), for the hairstyle and Raúl Raúl González Blanco , usually known simply as Raúl, is a Spanish football forward who plays for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid. He is a three-time winner of the UEFA Champions League and is Real Madrid's all-time leading scorer with 314 goals, as well as being the all-time leading scorer in the UEFA Champions League, with 64 goals. Raúl is, 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.

Online campaign against hunger

On 11 May 2010, FAO launched a worldwide communication and media campaign entitled "The 1billionhungry project", which encourages people "to get angry at the fact that around a billion people suffer from hunger". The FAO campaign borrows as its slogan the line "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!", used by Peter Finch Peter Finch was a British - born Australian actor. He is best remembered for his role as 'crazed' television anchorman Howard Beale in the film, Network, which earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor, his fifth Best Actor award from the BAFTA, and a Best Actor award from the Golden Globes. He is one of only two people to win a in the 1976 film, Network. The campaign asks people to sign an online petition at www.1billionhungry.org which calls upon governments to make the elimination of hunger their top priority. Also, after signing the petition, each person is given a ‘’secret code’’ that will be used to distribute the link to the petition among social networks. FAO said it hoped the petition will spread through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.[10]

The campaign was launched at the FAO headquarters in Rome and also in cities like Stockholm, Yokohama, New-York and Paris. The results of the petition will be presented to the representatives of each state that will be attending the World Food Day in New York at the UN Headquarters by the end of October 2010.[11]

The main idea of the project is that the FAO wants to increase the public awareness regarding the existence of chronic hunger in the world, which affects at least 1 billion people. The FAO also wants to educate people about the problems of hunger, and reinforce its role as the number one organization that operates with sustainable development concerning food security. The creative concept has been gracefully provided by the McCann Erickson Italy Communication Agency.

The symbol of the campaign is a yellow whistle, which acts as a metaphor to ‘’sound the alarm’’ of the existence of chronic hunger. On the 1billionhungry.org website, there is a counter that indicates how many people already signed the petition. Signatures can either be numeric (via the website or social media) or physical, by using signatures sheets (available on the 1BH website).

This communication campaign has many differences compared to a classic one. First, it relies on the assistance of organizations and institutions that can facilitate the spreading of the project, by placing banners on their websites or organizing events aimed to raise awareness about the project. Second, the 1 Billion Hungry project is a viral communication campaign, that is to say the people who signed the petition can spread the link of the 1billionhungry website to their friends, via social media or mail, in order to gain awareness and signatures for the project.

Moreover, each and every person can decide to organize an event about the project, simply by gathering friends, whistles, t-shirts and banners (whistles and t-shirts can be ordered on the 1 billionhungry.org website and graphic material is available on an FTP server hosted by the FAO) and thereby alert people about chronic hunger by using the yellow whistle. Signatures can be gathered in such events, by getting the signature sheet on the 1BH FTP.

Beyond the goal of getting massive people awareness about chronic hunger, the main goal of the petition is to get 1 million signatures. This scope is to put pressure on the participating states to work together and assist FAO in its struggle against chronic hunger in the world.

Membership

One notable exception from this list is Singapore.[12]

Criticism

1970s, 80s, 90s

There has been public criticism of FAO for at least 30 years. Dissatisfaction with the organisation's performance was among the reasons for the creation of two new organisations after the World Food Conference in 1974, namely the World Food Council and the International Fund for Agricultural Development; by the early eighties there was intense rivalry among these organisations.[13] At the same time, the World Food Programme, which started as an experimental 3-year programme under FAO, was growing in size and independence, with the Directors of FAO and WFP struggling for power.[14]

Early in 1989, the organisation came under attack from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. The Foundation wrote that The sad fact is that the FAO has become essentially irrelevant in combating hunger. A bloated bureaucracy known for the mediocrity of its work and the inefficiency of its staff the FAO in recent years has become increasingly politicised.[15] In September of the same year, the journal Society published a series of articles about FAO [16] that included a contribution from the Heritage Foundation and a response by FAO staff member, Richard Lydiker, who was later described by the Danish Minister for Agriculture (who had herself resigned from the organisation) as 'FAO's chief spokesman for non-transparency'.[17].

Edouard Saouma, the Director-General of FAO, was also criticised in Graham Hancock's book 'Lords of Poverty, published in 1989.[18]. Mention is made of Saouma's 'fat pay packet', his 'autocratic' management style, and his 'control over the flow of public information'. Hancock concluded that "One gets the sense from all of this of an institution that has lost its way, departed from its purely humanitarian and developmental mandate, become confused about its place in the world - about exactly what it is doing, and why". Despite the criticism, Edouard Saouma served as DG for three consecutive terms from 1976 to 1993.

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".[19]

A year later, in 1991, The Ecologist magazine produced a special issue under the heading "The UN Food and Agriculture Organization: Promoting World Hunger".[20] The magazine included articles that questioned FAO's policies and practices in forestry, fisheries, aquaculture, and pest control. The articles were written by experts such as Helena Norberg-Hodge, Vandana Shiva, Edward Goldsmith, Miguel A. Altieri and Barbara Dinham.

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.[21] 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.[22]

Since 2000

The next Food Summit organised by FAO in 2002 was considered to be a waste of time by many of the official participants.[23]. Social movements, farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists, indigenous peoples, environmentalists, women's organisations, trade unions and NGOs expressed their collective disappointment in, and rejection of the official Declaration of the... Summit[24].

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".[25] 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".[26] The Director General of FAO responded immediately, stating that decisions on biotechnology must "be taken at the international level by competent bodies" (in other words, not by non-governmental organizations). 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".[27]

In May 2006, a British newspaper published the resignation letter of Louise Fresco, one of eight Assistant Directors-General of FAO. In her letter, the widely respected Dr Fresco stated that "the Organisation 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".[28]

October 2006 saw delegates from 120 countries arrive in Rome for the 32nd Session of FAO's Committee on World Food Security. The event was widely criticised by Non-Government Organisations, but largely ignored by the mainstream media. Oxfam called for an end to the talk-fests[29] while Via Campesina issued a statement that criticised FAO's policy of Food Security.[30]

On 18 October 2007, the final report of an Independent External Evaluation of FAO was published. More than 400 pages in length, the evaluation was the first of its kind in the history of the Organization. It had been commissioned by decision of the 33rd Session of the FAO Conference in November 2005. The report concluded that "The Organization is today in a financial and programme crisis" but "the problems affecting the Organization today can all be solved" [31]

Among the problems noted by the IEE: "The Organization has been conservative and slow to adapt", "FAO currently has a heavy and costly bureaucracy" and "The capacity of the Organization is declining and many of its core competencies are now imperiled".

Among the solutions: "A new Strategic Framework", "institutional culture change and reform of administrative and management systems".

The official response from FAO came on 29 October: "Management supports the principal conclusion in the report of the IEE on the need for 'reform with growth' so as to have an FAO 'it for this century'".[32]

Meanwhile, hundreds of FAO staff signed a petition in support of the IEE recommendations, calling for " a radical shift in management culture and spirit, depoliticization of appointments, restoration of trust between staff and management, [and] setting strategic priorities of the organization".[33]

In conclusion the IEE stated that, "If FAO did not exist it would need to be invented".

In November 2008, a Special Conference of FAO member countries agreed a US$42.6 million, three-year Immediate Plan of Action for "reform with growth" as recommended by an Independent External Evaluation (IEE).

Under the plan US$21.8 million will be spent next year on overhauling the financial procedures, hierarchies and human resources management.[34]

FAO and the world food crisis

In May 2008, while talking about the ongoing world food crisis, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal expressed the opinion that FAO was "a waste of money" and "we must scrap it". Mr Wade said that FAO was itself largely to blame for the price rises, and that the organisation's work was duplicated by other bodies that operated more efficiently, like the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development.[35] However, this criticism may have had more to do with personal animosity between the President and the Director-General, himself a Senegalese, particularly in light of the significant differences in the work carried out by the two organizations.

In 2008, the FAO sponsored the High-Level Conference on World Food Security. The summit was notable for the lack of agreement over the issue of biofuels.[36]

The response to the summit among Non-governmental organizations was mixed, with Oxfam stating that "the summit in Rome was an important first step in tackling the food crisis but greater action is now needed"[37], while Maryam Rahmanian of Iran’s Centre for Sustainable Development said "We are dismayed and disgusted to see the food crisis used to further the policies that have led us to the food crisis in the first place”.[38]

As with previous food summits, civil society organizations held a parallel meeting and issued their own declaration to "reject the corporate industrial and energy-intensive model of production and consumption that is the basis of continuing crises" [39]

See also

United Nations portal

References

  1. ^ List of FAO members
  2. ^ FAO Departments http://www.fao.org/about/depart/en/
  3. ^ UN food agency says real budget falls in 2004-2005, UN Mission to the UN agencies in Rome, 10 December 2003 [1]
  4. ^ FAO’S 2006-2007 budget, FAO Newsroom, 25 November 2005
  5. ^ Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security, FAO Web site, 16 November 2009
  6. ^ "Haiti's seed multiplication programme yields fruits", Jeune Afrique, 21 August 2009 [2]
  7. ^ "UN food agency assists farmers in Zimbabwe", Xinhua, 14 September 2009 [3]
  8. ^ "Somalia faces worst crisis in 18 years: UN", Hindustan Times, 22 September 2009
  9. ^ "Zambezi hit by killer fish disease", Fish Farmer, 21 July 2009
  10. ^ FAO launches anti-hunger petition, 11 May 2010
  11. ^ "FAO fights hunger with petition". The Myanmar Times. 2010-07-05. http://www.mmtimes.com/2010/news/530/news009.html. Retrieved 2010-07-20.
  12. ^ CIA World Factbook, 14 May 2009
  13. ^ Critics Say Rivalries Hurt Work of Food Groups, New York Times, 9 November 1981 [4]
  14. ^ Bread and Stones: Leadership and the Struggle to Reform the United Nations World Food Programme", James Ingram, Booksurge, 2006 [5]
  15. ^ The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization: Becoming Part of the Problem, Juliana Geran Pilon, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #626, 4 January 1988 [6]
  16. ^ Society, Volume 25, Number 6, September 1988
  17. ^ A Sixth 100 Questions on Democracy, Council for Parity Democracy, 22 November 2002 [7]
  18. ^ Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business, MacMillan, London, 1989 [8]
  19. ^ Statement by John R. Bolton, Assistant Secretary for International Organizations,19 September 1990 [9]
  20. ^ The Ecologist 21(2), March/April, 1991
  21. ^ World Food Summit archive, FAO
  22. ^ Profit for few or food for all, Final Statement of the NGO Forum, 1996 [10]
  23. ^ Food summit waste of time. BBC, 13 June 2002
  24. ^ NGO/CSO Forum for Food Sovereignty, final statement, 12 June 2002
  25. ^ Agricultural Biotechnology: meeting the needs of the poor?, FAO, 17 May 2004 [11]
  26. ^ FAO declare war on farmers not hunger, Grain, 16 June 2004
  27. ^ Statement by FAO Director General
  28. ^ Resignation letter of Louise Fresco, ADG, FAO, Guardian Unlimited, 14 May 2006, [12]
  29. ^ Global hunger: act now or go home, press statement, 30 October 2006 [13]
  30. ^ 10 Years of Empty Promises, press statement 22 September 2006
  31. ^ Independent External Evaluation, page at FAO website with links to the IEE report [14]
  32. ^ Official FAO response to evaluation report
  33. ^ For a Renewal of FAO, on-line petition, November 2007
  34. ^ "UN food agency approves US$42.6 million reform plan"
  35. ^ UN food body should be scrapped, BBC News, 5 May 2008
  36. ^ Food summit fails to agree on biofuels, Guardian 06 June 2008
  37. ^ Rome summit ‘important first step’ but much more needed says Oxfam, Oxfam Press Release, 5 June 2008 [15]
  38. ^ Farmers 'disgusted' with food summit, Daily Despatch Online, 7 June 2008 [16]
  39. ^ Civil Society Declaration of the Terra Preta Forum, La Via Campesina, 5 June 2008 [17]]

External links

FAO on YouTube

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Is there still a build your own hotwheels in the FAO Schwartz in NYC?
Q. I was in the FAO in New York a couple of years ago and they had a thing set up where you picked a bunch of different options on the computer and it made you a "Custom" hot wheels car. I was wondering if anyone knew if it was still there.
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A. Doesn't look like it. The "Build Your Own" section just lists: Muppet Whatnots Workshop Make-Your-Own Monster Madame Alexander Doll Factory Imagine This Fashion Design But you can go to which is specific to the NYC store, and check out their features.
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