Introduction

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. FAO’s goal is to achieve food security for all and to ensure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active and healthy lives. With 195 members—194 countries and the European Union—FAO operates in over 130 countries around the world.

FAO stands at the center of the UN Development System (UNDS), spearheading efforts to address the world’s most pressing challenges related to food and agriculture.

Mission, vision and goals

In pursuit of its mandate to end hunger, FAO works in close collaboration with other UN agencies, funds, and programmes, leveraging their respective strengths and comparative advantages.
FAO promotes innovative approaches to UN collaboration and harnesses the potential of transformative partnerships—powerful alliances designed to deliver sustainable results through systemic, long-term, and disruptive action.

It plays a prominent role in ongoing UNDS reform and actively participates in global and regional UN system-wide coordination mechanisms to improve action and response to current and emerging threats to global food security.

Through enhanced advocacy and strategic communication, and by engaging across key initiatives such as the UN Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda, FAO has positioned agrifood systems transformation at the core of the UN’s sustainable development agenda.
At the country level, FAO contributes significantly to the revitalized Resident Coordinator system, providing integrated support and policy advice in cooperation with UN Country Teams. Through the use of UNDS planning and programming tools—such as the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework and the UN Common Country Analysis—FAO prioritizes food security and agrifood systems transformation as essential components of the UN’s support to national governments.

Structure

The Conference of Member Nations convenes every two years. It elects a Council composed of forty-nine Member States, each serving a three-year term, and appoints a Director-General for a six-year term (currently Mr. José Graziano da Silva of Brazil, elected in June 2011).
The Council meets once during the years when the Conference is not held, and three times during the years when it is.

Regional conferences focused on local priorities are held in one of the five regional offices: Africa, Asia and the Pacific; Europe; Latin America and the Caribbean; and the Near East.
FAO’s organizational structure comprises seven departments:

• Agriculture and Consumer Protection
• Economic and Social Development
• Fisheries and Aquaculture
• Forestry
• Corporate Services, Human Resources, and Finance
• Natural Resources Management and Environment
• Technical Cooperation

As of May 2010, FAO employed approximately 3,640 staff members—two-thirds based at its headquarters and the remainder stationed in offices around the world.

Secretariat

Headquarters: Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00153 Rome, Italy

Tel: (+39) 06 57051

e-mail: FAO-HQ@fao.org

FAX: (39) 06 57 0531_06 57 0551_55

In addition to its Headquarters in Rome, Italy, FAO has an extensive decentralized network of Regional, Subregional, Country and Liaison Offices.

www.fao.org