Project evaluation, 2015

FAO´s work on the Right to Food is mainly supported through voluntary contributions by FAO Member States. The Governments of Spain and Norway as well as FAO are interested to better understand the scope and impact of the two projects that are under evaluation. This evaluation could also help to better define FAO’s role in the promotion of the right to food and contribute to formulating a more strategic approach on how FAO can better assist governments to realize the right to food.

The right to food has been recognized as a human right since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, in numerous binding and nonbinding legal instruments, notably Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). However, guidance on its implementation was not available until 2004 when, after two years of negotiations under the umbrella of FAO, Member States adopted the “Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right t o Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security” (RtFG), the only intergovernmental text clarifying the concrete measures that States should take to implement the human right to adequate food. Since then, FAO’s Right to Food team has supported the implementation of the guidelines as one of the most authoritative and complete guiding documents available for building a sound, national human rights-based food security and nutrition (FSN) framework. Over the years, FAO has been promoting th e Guidelines through dedicated staff (the Right to Food Team in ESA, legal officer in LEG and staff in decentralized offices), the delivery of policy assistance to States and the publication of a number of studies and a toolkit. Operationally, the Right to Food Team conducted a number of specific operational projects at regional and country levels.