Partnering with ILO
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is committed to promoting social justice. In partnership with FAO, collaborative efforts centre around creating decent work opportunities in rural areas; an essential factor in achieving sustainable agriculture and for rural development.
Together, ILO and FAO address challenges such as rural poverty, migration, and labour rights within agrifood systems, working on initiatives that link employment, productivity and social protection with food security and sustainable agricultural practices.
FAO and ILO’s joint involvement in country-level projects, such as the CLEAR Cotton Project, has delivered significant results at national and regional levels.
Global Frameworks
FAO and ILO renewed their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in May 2024, enabling the two specialized agencies to build on their complementary technical expertise and provide increasingly robust support to countries.
The revamped partnership aims to provide more comprehensive, inclusive and coherent support to FAO and ILO Members, strengthening capacities to respond to challenges in a timely manner, where a joint approach is beneficial. The MoU is designed to enhance synergies between ILO and FAO activities at country level, including in the context of Humanitarian Response Plans.
The MoU and its related Joint Action Plan defines the following 12 areas of collaboration:
- Employment and entrepreneurship
- Fisheries and aquaculture
- Forestry
- Social protection
- Elimination of child labour
- Occupational safety and health
- Labour migration
- Rural development in humanitarian crises
- Climate change
- Statistics
- Responsible business conduct
- Inclusive rural finance
Global Frameworks
In August 2023, FAO, IFAD, and WFP, known collectively as the Rome-Based Agencies (RBAs), signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a period of five years.
The MoU enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of the agencies’ contribution to food security and nutrition, and in particular, the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2.
The MoU outlines six thematic areas in which the RBAs agree to enhance collaboration: agrifood systems; nutrition; gender equality and women’s empowerment; resilience building; youth; and climate change, environment, and biodiversity.
However, this does not preclude the RBAs from exploring collaboration in other areas of mutual interest where there is a clear comparative advantage and the benefits of collaboration outweigh the costs.
The MoU also states that the RBAs’ collaborative efforts will be underpinned by science and innovation; strong data and analysis; knowledge sharing; awareness raising; and joint resource mobilization, communication, and advocacy.
