Office of Strategy, Programme and Budget (OSP)

FAO and the Sustainable Development Goals

A clear results chain and architecture is essential to clarify goals and to provide a clear statement of priorities and value added. The challenge of the 2030 Agenda requires a shift in working paradigm to ensure transformational change. FAO and all UN entities are re-examining our ways of working to ensure that we are leveraging most effectively our limited resources and taking best advantage of our global knowledge, neutral status, and convening authority. In short, we focus both on “doing things right” and on “doing the right things”.

The SDGs are central in FAO’s overall theory of change under its Strategic Framework. Key SDGs and their indicators, including all indicators for which FAO is custodian or contributing agency,[1] are used to promote focus, track progress and express aspirations at the level of medium/long-term outcome/impact. 

By putting the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs at the centre of the Strategic Framework, FAO uses a common language to articulate its mandated targets and respective results across all Organizational levels. The twenty Programme Priority Areas guide FAO on filling critical gaps and putting in place the conditions needed to drive the changes that will ultimately contribute to the achievement of the selected SDG targets.

[1] Relevant indicators under SDG 1 (No poverty), SDG 2 (Zero hunger), SDG 5 (Gender), SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation), SDG 12 (Responsible production and consumption), SDG 14 (Life under water), and SDG 15 (Life on land).

Focus on Sustainable Development Goals

The Agenda 2030 includes 17 goals, 169 targets and 230 indicators, in addition to means of implementation and the global partnership. The FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 places the 2030 Agenda at its centre and will use key SDGs and their indicators to promote focus and track progress. FAO’s contributions span all SDGs, and are guided by the lens of SDG 1, SDG 2, and SDG 10. FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 embraces the five basic principles that feed into all SDGs – the ‘five Ps’: people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership.

FAO is the ‘custodian’ UN agency for 21 indicators and is a contributing agency to five more spanning SDGs 2, 5, 6, 12, 14 and 15.