FAO strengthens partnerships with the IFRC, ILO and WMO

Geneva – On the occasion of his trip to Geneva for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the Conference on AI for Good, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu signed Memorandum of Understandings with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

FAO and IFRC: a new partnership for community resilience and transformation of agrifood systems

FAO and IFRC have been cooperating for more than a decade with the first MoU signed in 2013. Building on the complementary mandates and strengths of the two agencies, the new approach aims to improve the quality and expand the scope, scale and impact of food security and agricultural livelihoods programming. This will support the need to produce more with less: increasing the amount of high quality and diverse foods with fewer inputs and less negative impact on the environment.

The MoU, which FAO Director-General signed with IFRC Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain in a meeting in Geneva, enshrines the partnership's new vision, which aims to, among other things, harness innovation and technology to facilitate the transformation of agrifood systems and community resilience, and to promote the implementation of localized approaches to ensure an effective and sustainable response. The agreement also seeks to conduct joint advocacy and to strengthen approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk management at the local level.

FAO and ILO to strengthen synergies in Humanitarian Response Plans

FAO Director-General also signed an MoU with ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo. The main objective of the agreement is to update the cooperation framework of the two Organizations in order to address the challenges of the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The revamped partnership aims to improve the effectiveness of the support provided by the two Organizations to their Members, so that such support is more comprehensive, inclusive and coherent in responding timely to challenges where a joint approach is beneficial. The MoU is designed to strengthen synergies between ILO and FAO activities at country level, including in the context of Humanitarian Response Plans.  

FAO and WMO bolster alliance in situations of fragility and food crises

During his visit to Geneva, Qu also renewed FAO's partnership with WMO.

The signing of the first MoU in 2017 laid the ground for cooperation between the two Organizations, which has proven successful on several fronts, for example, in minimizing losses in agrifood systems due to weather disasters. This has included the WMO-led Early Warnings for All initiative, supported by FAO, in generating knowledge about disaster risk and preparedness and response capabilities through life-saving early warning systems. In addition, FAO's contribution to WMO's Global and Regional State of the Climate reports has become vital for raising awareness and guiding climate policies. Finally, through the ACREI project, FAO and WMO have helped alleviate food insecurity in East African countries facing unfavorable weather and climate conditions.

The new MoU will scale up cooperation, envisioning a results-oriented Joint Action Plan coordinated by the FAO Office for Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment (OCB) in collaboration with the FAO Office for Emergencies and Resilience (OER). The agreement strengthens the partnership especially in situations of fragility or food crises, with a focus on five priority areas: agro-meteorological services for climate resilient development; partnerships and policy dialogue for climate action; inter-agency initiatives for disaster risk reduction and water resource management; data, tools and methodologies for meteorological, ocean, climate, environmental and water services; and resource mobilization and knowledge transfer for climate resilient development.