Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads
international efforts to defeat hunger. It was founded in 1945. It played the leading role in the global
food and agriculture issue areas, overseeing the establishment of important agreements and
institutions, including the World Food Programme (WFP). The functions of FAO include efforts to
improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices, ensuring good nutrition and food security.

Objective of FAO
The objective is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough
high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives

Members of FAO
FAO has 194 Member Nations, two associate members and one member organization, the European
Union

Functions of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

The functions of FAO are:
 To Help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition
 To Make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable
 Reduce rural poverty
 Enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems
 Increase the resilience of livelihoods to threats and crises

Director General of FAO

The Director General is the head of the FAO Secretariat and its senior management team. The current
Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, assumed his functions on 1 January 2012 and was re-elected
for a term which expires on 31 July 2019.

Headquarters of FAO
The FAO Headquarters is located in the city centre of Rome

World Food Programme

Assisting 91.4 million people in around 83 countries each year, the World Food Programme (WFP) is the
leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in
emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience.

©Papertyari.com Page 1
Initiatives of FAO
 EASYPol: A multilingual repository of freely downloadable resources for policy making in
agriculture, rural development and food security. These resources focus on policy findings,
methodological tools and capacity development.
 EX-ACT: This tool aims at providing ex-ante estimations of the impact of agriculture and forestry
development projects on GHG emissions and carbon sequestration, indicating its effects on the
carbon balance
 MAFAP: MAFAP is a joint FAO/OECD initiative. It seeks to monitor and ensure that policies and
investments are fully supportive of agricultural development, the sustainable use of natural
resources and enhanced food security. It aims to support decision-making at national, regional
and pan-African levels

©Papertyari.com Page 2