The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) plays a unique role in strengthening the foundations of lasting peace and promoting equitable and sustainable development.  

Pursuing the shared objective of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), FAO and UNESCO collaborate to address global issues in the education, culture, food and health nexus. This includes building joint programmes that focus on the interlinkages between food, culture and peace, as well as implementing education projects in marginalized and conflict-affected rural areas.   

One of the flagship pillars of collaboration between the two organizations is based on FAO’s Global International Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS), which shares linkages and synergies between with UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre and Intangible Heritage Convention.

Global Frameworks 

In 2018, FAO and UNESCO signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a period of five years. Due to the positive outcomes of the collaboration between the two organizations, the parties agreed to renew the MoU in July 2023 for an additional period of five years. 

The MoU has the following overarching areas of cooperation: Education; Natural Sciences; Social and Human Sciences; Culture; and Communication and Information.  

However, this list of areas is not exhaustive and does not exclude or replace other forms of cooperation between the Parties on other issues of common interest.  

Memberships 

FAO and UNESCO are both Members of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG), a high-level forum for joint policy formation and decision-making, which guides, supports, tracks and oversees the coordination of development operations in countries and territories across the world.