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Self Report 2018

The self-report on WHS Commitments below is organized according to the 24 transformations of the Agenda for Humanity. It is based on commitments pledged at the time of report submission. Click on the 'Expand' symbol to expand each section and read the reporting inputs by transformation.

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  • 1B
    Act early

    Individual Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO commits to ensuring that key operational staff working in conflict-affected contexts are trained and competent in conflict-sensitivity best practice.






    • Capacity
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • FAO commits to operationalizing the guidance from the Committee on World Food Security's Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (CFS-FFA) by strengthening conflict-sensitive programming and interventions by the Organization, and contributing to peacebuilding initiatives, as appropriate.
    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • FAO commits to provide food security-related information to contribute to multidisciplinary analysis informing regular updates to the United Nations Security Council and political arms to the UN System on situations of concern.



    • Operational
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to act early upon potential conflict situations based on early warning findings and shared conflict analysis, in accordance with international law.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Commit to make successful conflict prevention visible by capturing, consolidating and sharing good practices and lessons learnt.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/the World Food Programme (FAO/WFP) finalised a report on monitoring food security in countries with conflict situations, as part of a series of regular, bi-annual briefings to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on food security in countries it is formally monitoring. This activity complements a larger effort to track food crises globally and provide coordinated responses that are summarized in the annual Global Report on Food Crisis and its associated Global Network Against Food Crises. Initiated by FAO, WFP and the European Union (EU), that effort now involves a network of partners and donors including the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), FAO, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), WFP and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

    A partnership between Interpeace/International Peacebuilding Advisory Team (IPAT) and FAO was finalised to develop conflict-sensitive programming tools, being piloted in FAO country offices. Feedback from pilots will inform the design of context analysis and conflict-sensitive programme inquiry tools, and follow-up training will be provided to country offices to ensure sustainability.

    A full-time conflict analyst was hired at HQ, and additional staff resources were agreed in FAO’s Medium-Term Plan 2018-21. A corporate plan for upscaling conflict sensitivity across FAO resilience and emergency programming will be developed in 2018.

    FAO has engaged in various peacebuilding activities, including five Peacebuilding Fund projects approved in 2017 in Somalia, Madagascar, Colombia, Niger and Central African Republic.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Frequency of food security reports to the UNSC; number of trainings completed on conflict sensitivity; publication of tools and guidance.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Buy-in
    • Data and analysis
    • Funding amounts
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Ensuring continuity of funding for key food security and analytical tools, e.g. Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). Working with colleagues who may not immediately understand the relevance of conflict analysis, requiring perception change, which can take time.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Planned actions for 2018 include external circulation of FAO's corporate framework to support sustainable peace in the context of Agenda 2030 and dissemination; finalisation of conflict-sensitivity programming tools with Interpeace and testing in country offices, and scaling up across FAO. Development of related e-learning tools. The 2018 update to the UNSC was issued in January, and the 2018 Global Report on Food Crises was launched in March.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    Good practice (https://www.fao.org/3/a-i7422e.pdf); Discussion Paper (https://www.fao.org/3/a-i7610e.pdf); Global Report on Food Crises 2017 (https://www.fao.org/3/a-br323e.pdf); Monitoring Food Security for UNSC (https://www.fao.org/3/I8386EN/i8386en.pdf).

  • 1C
    Remain engaged and invest in stability

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO commits by mid-2017 to adopt a corporate policy, and related operational guidelines, on FAO's role, in line with its work and mandate, in contributing to conflict prevention, sustainable peace and stability as part of efforts by the wide UN system and community of practice.
    • Policy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • FAO commits to increase the number of staff aware of, and trained in conflict analysis and conflict prevention related to policies and actions supporting food security and nutrition in governments, regional and international organizations by 2018.
    • Capacity
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    Core Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to improve prevention and peaceful resolution capacities at the national, regional and international level improving the ability to work on multiple crises simultaneously.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Commit to sustain political leadership and engagement through all stages of a crisis to prevent the emergence or relapse into conflict.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Commit to address root causes of conflict and work to reduce fragility by investing in the development of inclusive, peaceful societies.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' (FAO) corporate framework to support sustainable peace in the context of Agenda 2030 was developed over the first half of 2017 and approved by FAO’s Director-General in May 2017. Internal dissemination took place in the second half of 2017 across FAO through various communication mechanisms.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Finalisation and internal publication of the corporate framework and related outreach activities.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Lack of specific expertise on conflict analysis/conflict sensitivity in the first half 2017 and delayed development of guidance and tools to support FAO country offices. 

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Development of FAO-specific tools, in collaboration with Interpeace, to support operationalisation of the corporate framework by country offices. This includes a specific conflict-sensitive programme inquiry tool that will provide provide a 'good enough' context analysis tool to inform conflict-sensitive programme design. Field testing in at least two countries to refine tools; capacity development activities at regional and country level; external publication of framework.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Additional investment in building capacities for conflict sensitive programming in country offices is required to ensure sustainability and uptake.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    New partnership developed with Interpeace to support FAO in developing conflict-sensitive tools and training for conflict-sensitive programming, piloting of tools in countries and development of plans for upscaling and mainstreaming

  • 2B
    Ensure full access to and protection of the humanitarian and medical missions

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO commits to ensuring that all its humanitarian response activities have the aim of making people safer, preserving their dignity and reducing vulnerabilities by building the skills of staff according to their duties in areas such as conflict-sensitivity, protection, negotiations with parties, security and access, internal strategies and policies, and international humanitarian law and human rights law.
    • Capacity
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to ensure all populations in need receive rapid and unimpeded humanitarian assistance.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Commit to promote and enhance efforts to respect and protect medical personnel, transports and facilities, as well as humanitarian relief personnel and assets against attacks, threats or other violent acts.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' (FAO) Corporate Framework to support sustainable peace in the context of Agenda 2030 specifically calls for “a more deliberate and transformative impact on sustaining peace” by FAO as an organization, including all personnel and in all geographic locations.

    The document also acknowledges that the “FAO is the UN’s foremost technical institution in helping to prevent conflict over access to natural resources (land, water, fisheries) using a combination of capacity development, partnerships, policy support, globally accepted voluntary guidelines, and strategic deployment of technical staff.” FAO's corporate framework was developed over the first half of 2017 and approved by FAO’s Director-General in May 2017. Internal dissemination took place in second half of 2017 across FAO through various communication mechanisms.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Finalisation and internal publication of corporate framework and related outreach activities.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Funding amounts
    • Human resources/capacity
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Lack of specific expertise on conflict analysis/conflict sensitivity in first half 2017 delayed development of guidance and tools to support FAO country offices.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Development of FAO-specific tools, in collaboration with Interpeace, to support operationalisation of the corporate framework by country offices. This includes a specific conflict-sensitive programme inquiry tool that will provide provide a 'good enough' context analysis tool to inform conflict-sensitive programme design. Field testing in at least two countries to refine tools; capacity development activities at regional and country level; external publication of framework.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Additional investment by FAO in building capacities for conflict sensitive programming in country offices is required to ensure sustainability and uptake.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    New partnership developed with Interpeace to support FAO in developing conflict-sensitive tools and training for conflict-sensitive programming, piloting of tools in countries and development of plans for upscaling and mainstreaming.

  • 2D
    Take concrete steps to improve compliance and accountability

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO commits to developing and implementing approaches and strategies for the engagement of men and boys as part of the solution to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in crisis settings by 2018.
    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • FAO commits to increasing staff training on inclusion of gender sensitive and protection measures in the design and delivery of programmes to contribute to preventing and mitigating gender-based violence.
    • Training
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to promote and enhance respect for international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and refugee law, where applicable.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Commit to speak out and systematically condemn serious violations of international humanitarian law and serious violations and abuses of international human rights law and to take concrete steps to ensure accountability of perpetrators when these acts amount to crimes under international law.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Implement a coordinated global approach to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in crisis contexts, including through the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    • Fully comply with humanitarian policies, frameworks and legally binding documents related to gender equality, women's empowerment, and women's rights.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Gender-based violence prevention and response

    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has recently developed a guidance and a policy brief to introduce FAO staff and partners to both the relevance and practical know-how of addressing gender-based violence (GBV) in food security and agriculture interventions. These materials aim to show how GBV matters for food security and explain how to protect men and women against GBV in FAO’s areas of work. 

    In 2017 FAO started a series of capacity development and staff learning activities to raise awareness on the relevance of protection against GBV in humanitarian work. A series of training workshops were organized for staff and local partners in Somalia, in the FAO’s response to the Syria’s crisis and in Morocco. Specific guidance was also provided on how to address GBV and Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) during the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of pertinent projects and programmes. Some awareness raising events on GBV and masculinity issues were jointly organized with the Rome-based agencies for staff.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    At the beginning of each biennium a detailed workplan with milestones is developed and progress and results are closely monitored, through existing internal monitoring and reporting system.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Buy-in
    • Funding amounts
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    The above mentioned challenges reduced the potential impact of our interventions and the number of country support activities that could be carried out.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    FAO commits to developing and implementing approaches and strategies for the engagement of men and boys as part of the solution to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in crisis settings by 2018.

    FAO commits to Increasing staff training on inclusion of gender sensitive and protection measures in the design and delivery of programmes to contribute to preventing and mitigating gender-based violence.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Adequate allocation of financial and human resources to implement the above mentioned actions is required. Greater efforts will also be made to identify strategic external partners and allocate adequate resources to continue developing and disseminating approaches and good practices to protect against GBV to strengthen individual and institutional capacities with the aim of reducing GBV in agriculture and food security interventions.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    In recent years support was provided to selected governments to abolish discriminatory legislation and practices and incorporate gender equality and GBV work in their programmes. FAO Dimitra Clubs, Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools, and Safe Access to Fuel and Energy interventions increased women’s access to resources and services, and reduced GBV risks.

     

    Keywords

    Gender

  • 3A
    Reduce and address displacement

    Individual Commitments (5)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO commits to a systemic corporate approach for inclusion of gender sensitive and youth inclusive measures in the design and delivery of programmes addressing forced displacement.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • FAO commits to develop new partnerships, including with the private sector, to encourage innovative approaches to support the self-reliance of refugees and IDPs, through portable skills, viable employment opportunities, sustainable socio-economic entrepreneurship, and livelihood diversification.
    • Partnership
    • Leave No One Behind
    • FAO commits to developing a corporate operational framework to support solutions for displaced persons, including through provision of viable livelihood opportunities in places of origin, in transit and in host countries.
    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind
    • FAO commits to strengthen its ability to identify and address the relevant drivers and triggers of forced displacement, as early as possible, through Early Warning for Early Action mechanisms, and take rapid action to prevent situations from becoming protracted.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • FAO recognizes that forced displacement is both a humanitarian and development issue, and commits to work with global initiatives such as the Solutions Alliance, and aligns itself with its vision.

    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind

    Core Commitments (5)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new approach to addressing forced displacement that not only meets immediate humanitarian needs but reduces vulnerability and improves the resilience, self-reliance and protection of refugees and IDPs. Commit to implementing this new approach through coherent international, regional and national efforts that recognize both the humanitarian and development challenges of displacement. Commit to take the necessary political, policy, legal and financial steps required to address these challenges for the specific context.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Commit to promote and support safe, dignified and durable solutions for internally displaced persons and refugees. Commit to do so in a coherent and measurable manner through international, regional and national programs and by taking the necessary policy, legal and financial steps required for the specific contexts and in order to work towards a target of 50 percent reduction in internal displacement by 2030.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Acknowledge the global public good provided by countries and communities which are hosting large numbers of refugees. Commit to providing communities with large numbers of displaced population or receiving large numbers of returnees with the necessary political, policy and financial, support to address the humanitarian and socio-economic impact. To this end, commit to strengthen multilateral financing instruments. Commit to foster host communities' self-reliance and resilience, as part of the comprehensive and integrated approach outlined in core commitment 1.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Commit to collectively work towards a Global Compact on responsibility-sharing for refugees to safeguard the rights of refugees, while also effectively and predictably supporting States affected by such movements.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Commit to actively work to uphold the institution of asylum and the principle of non-refoulement. Commit to support further accession to and strengthened implementation of national, regional and international laws and policy frameworks that ensure and improve the protection of refugees and IDPs, such as the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol or the AU Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala convention) or the Guiding Principles on internal displacement.
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Other-3A

    At the global level, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), jointly with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and other entities and organizations is supporting the implementation of the thematic area of ‘’Youth, Peace and Security’’ (building on Resolution 2250). It is within this framework and within the youth peacebuilding efforts, that enhancing young people’s citizenship participation including from young refugees and IDPs, has been re-affirmed.

    Further, the Inter-Agency Network for Youth Development (IANYD) members (including FAO), pledged to increase and intensify within their respective mandates at global, regional and country level, the full and effective participation in society and decision making of all youth, including internally displaced and refugees or those affected by humanitarian situations and armed conflict.

    At country level various initiatives were ongoing to implement and operationalize an enhanced support to strenghten employment opportunities for young refugees and IDPs, for example in Mali, Somalia and the Gaza Strip.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Projects and activities monitoring and reporting.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Funding amounts
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Country workshops in Africa on youth, peace and security are foreseen in 2018, to start implementing parts of Resolution 2250.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Further mobilization of funds

    Keywords

    Youth

  • 3D
    Empower and protect women and girls

    Individual Commitments (7)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO commits to build on and strengthen women's knowledge and capacities to meaningfully involve them in the design, monitoring and delivery of targeted projects, programmes and policy support to better meet the needs of women and girls in humanitarian action.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • FAO commits to provide increased numbers of womens groups with capacity development support to facilitate rural womens access to services, knowledge and economic opportunities by 2018.
    • Capacity
    • Leave No One Behind
    • FAO commits to empowering women and their organizations, promoting equal rights and participation for women and men, girls and boys, and addressing gender inequalities, by following the guidance laid out in the Committee on World Food Security's Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (CFS-FFA).
    • Capacity
    • Leave No One Behind
    • FAO commits to identifying and analyzing, through the use of sex and age disaggregated data, the different vulnerabilities and challenges women and men of all ages face, and scale up evidence-based gender-responsive programming in order to generate a long-term impact on livelihoods and resilience.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • FAO commits to implement the findings and recommendations of the IASC Gender Policy Review.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • FAO commits to increase deployment of women facilitators and field staff to improve outreach to women, e.g. through training women as community vaccinators, animal health workers, extension officers, facilitators, and through strategic local partnerships with women's organizations.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • FAO commits to prioritize supporting organizations and activities that advance women's access to nutritious food and their access to and control over land and other productive resources; strengthening rural women's organizations and networks; increasing women's participation and leadership in rural institutions; incorporating knowledge of agriculture into programmes and projects; and ensuring the development of technologies and services that reduce women's work burden.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    Core Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Empower Women and Girls as change agents and leaders, including by increasing support for local women's groups to participate meaningfully in humanitarian action.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome documents of their review conferences for all women and adolescent girls in crisis settings.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Ensure that humanitarian programming is gender responsive.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Fully comply with humanitarian policies, frameworks and legally binding documents related to gender equality, women's empowerment, and women's rights.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Participatory approaches and tools were designed to better integrate target beneficiaries in the design process, identify and address their specific needs and concerns in order to ensure equal benefits from the intervention. Efforts are made to involve women and men in the planning and monitoring process through the formulation of gender-sensitive indicators and the collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data. Within the framework of a Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) funded  programme, work was pursued to ensure the integration of gender equality and accountability to affected populations (AAP) in various on-going projects in four countries of West Africa.

    One of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' (FAO) gender equality objectives is to increase women’s access to productive resources, goods and services, and efforts are made by the organization in partnership with the United Nations (UN) Rome based agencies and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) to empower women and integrate women’s groups in development and humanitarian interventions.

    Guidance materials were prepared and technical advice given to staff members and external partners to support vulnerability and resilience measurement, taking into account gender issues, and with the collection of sex-disaggregated data and the formulation of gender-sensitive indicators.

    FAO has successfully supported inclusion of gender equality considerations in international policy dialogues and voluntary guidelines covering themes such as the right to food, governance of tenure, in sustainable small-scale fisheries, and responsible investment in agriculture and food systems.

    A specific principle on women’s empowerment and gender equality was negotiated in the Committee on World Food Security- Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (CFS-FFA).

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Internal mechanisms are in place to support biennial monitoring and reporting.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Buy-in
    • Data and analysis
    • Information management/tools
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    The lack of sufficient data and information management tools, with limited awareness on the relevance of better disaggregating data by sex and age, have reduced the capacity to monitor gender related impacts in a more efficient way.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    In the first half of 2018, FAO has been enhancing its accountability and community engagement tools and capacities to promote wider involvement of women and men as stakeholders in the design, monitoring and delivery of targeted projects, programmes and policy support to better meet the gender-specific needs in humanitarian action.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    In line with the commitments stated in FAO’s Policy on Gender Equality, the organization will continue supporting organizations and activities that advance women’s access to nutritious food and their access to and control over land and other productive resources; strengthening rural women’s organizations and networks; increasing women’s participation and leadership in rural institutions; incorporating knowledge of agriculture into programmes and projects; and ensuring the development of technologies and services that reduce women’s work burden.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    Increased deployment of women facilitators and field staff to reach women, through training them as community vaccinators, animal health workers, extension officers, and through strategic partnerships with women’s organizations. Guidance materials developed to address gender equality and food security issues, promoting sustainable peace process, and protecting populations at risk of GBV.

     

    Keywords

    Gender, People-centred approach

  • 4A
    Reinforce, do not replace, national and local systems

    Individual Commitments (10)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO commits to build and strengthen strategic partnerships with governments, local actors and well as UN partners to enhance their capacity to effectively address prevention and response to crises, including through shock-responsive social protection systems.



    • Partnership
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to ensuring that local capacities are reinforced and not replaced, and accordingly that greater roles and responsibilities are entrusted to local organizations and local actors in resilience programming, design, implementation and monitoring.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to identifying and supporting transformative approaches in humanitarian situations that encourage meaningful participation by women and girls in local action and decision-making, e.g. through farmer field schools and other community-based participatory approaches.










    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to reassessing its corporate mechanisms for partnership and financial engagement with NGOs, by introducing new administrative mechanisms and supporting the Charter for Change.


    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to scaling up its work on the role of social protection in fragile contexts, as well as engagement in social protection work, through operational research on cash and livelihoods work in over 15 countries by the end of 2017.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to strengthen capacities in the agricultural sectors of countries and communities to benefit from social protection and risk transfer pools.
    • Capacity
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to support agriculture-based livelihoods in conflict situations, helping people who decide to stay on their land to be productive, contributing to food security and resilience outcomes.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to support men and women in over 45 countries with improved application of integrated and/or sector-specific standards, technologies and practices for resilience measurement, vulnerability reduction, risk prevention, and preparedness with a particular focus on countries recurrently exposed to natural hazards and protracted crisis situations, and in line with principles of the Committee on World Food Security's Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (CFS-FFA).
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to support the strengthening of early warning related to agriculture, food security and nutrition to inform the design of shock-responsive social protection systems.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to translate into operational terms the goal of cash-based delivery of assistance as preferred method, where the context allows.





    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Core Commitments (6)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to reinforce national and local leadership and capacities in managing disaster and climate-related risks through strengthened preparedness and predictable response and recovery arrangements.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to increase investment in building community resilience as a critical first line of response, with the full and effective participation of women.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to ensure regional and global humanitarian assistance for natural disasters complements national and local efforts.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to increase substantially and diversify global support and share of resources for humanitarian assistance aimed to address the differentiated needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises in fragile situations and complex emergencies, including increasing cash-based programming in situations where relevant.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to empower national and local humanitarian action by increasing the share of financing accessible to local and national humanitarian actors and supporting the enhancement of their national delivery systems, capacities and preparedness planning.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Strengthening national/local leadership and systems

    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supported governments to develop risk informed and shock responsive social protection in Somalia, Lesotho, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Lebanon, Philippines, Bangladesh, and Vietnam among others.

    FAO continued to increase the institutionalization and use of cash-based transfers to deliver development and humanitarian assistance. FAO delivered more than $44 million worth of cash and vouchers to 2.4 million beneficiaries in 26 countries, including the four countries in famine or facing the acute famine risk in 2017. The experience and innovation of FAO’s work feeds into support to strengthening national social protection systems.

    FAO was one of the main organizing partners of the International Conference on Social Protection in Contexts of Fragility and Forced Displacement.[1]

    A methodological framework was developed with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) to guide policy interventions on how to improve food security among populations affected by conflict, promote ways of sustaining peace in such communities and support gender equality.  

    [1] (https://sp-fragility-displacement.onetec.eu/).

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • Funding amounts
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Capacity to fully exploit FAO’s technical skills and to bring related programmes to scale.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    Pilot of the Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) system at country level allowed a refinement of the methodology including links with shock responsive Social Protection (SP), focusing on how EWEA triggers can be used as SP triggers for scaling up in anticipation of a shock.

    FAO is leading an intervention, in partnership with teh International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and support of the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), to support ASEAN member states (AMS) in developing an approach to design risk informed and shock responsive SP systems.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    Development of early warning systems to prevent and limit impacts of shocks. (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) IGAD-FAO partnership to prevent and mitigate impacts of conflict and displacement on resources access, cross border trade and prevention of livestock pest and disease spread.

    CASH+ (cash and productive interventions) as core component of shock responsive social protection.

     

    Keywords

    Cash, Local action

  • 4B
    Anticipate, do not wait, for crises

    Joint Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Together with WHO and OIE, FAO commits to combatting emerging pandemic threats of animal origin and high impact animal diseases by adopting more effective health risk management strategies, as part of integrated and multisectoral approaches (e.g. One Health).


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Partners: WHO, World Organisation for Animal Health

    • FAO commits, by the end of 2016, in partnership with the Rome-based UN Agencies and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), to agree on joint steps, within defined timelines, to ensure early collective action related to future El Nino and La Nina events, resource partners, and early investment in preparedness and resilience initiatives.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Partners: WFP, IFAD, OCHA

    Individual Commitments (7)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO commits to accelerate the reduction of disaster and climate-related risks that impact food and agriculture through enhanced support to 30 countries in the coherent implementation of relevant global frameworks on disaster risk reduction, climate change and sustainable development by mainstreaming disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into agricultural policies that are inclusive, gender-sensitive and people-centred.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to contribute to the achievement of collective outcomes like the A2R Initiative of the UNSG, the Global Preparedness Partnership, the Rome-based UN Agencies initiative for resilience, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) One Billion Coalition for Resilience to strengthen the resilience of 1 billion people by 2025.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to enhancing coordination and improved investment programming for risk reduction and crisis management in at least 15 countries by the end of 2017.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to improve the understanding, anticipation and preparedness for climate and food chain related risks, disasters and crises by investing in data, analysis and information and early warning systems like the Information for Nutrition Food Security and Resilience for Decision Making (INFORMED), the Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS), the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES), and LOCUSTWATCH, and developing evidence-based decision-making processes that result in risk reduction and early action. An innovative Early Warning Early Action system will be rolled out in 30 disaster-or crisis-prone countries over the next five years.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to improving data and evidence building through resilience and vulnerability mapping, measurement and analysis to better inform policy and investment decisions, and to make this information open and accessible, particularly through multi-partner mechanisms such as the Global Food Security Cluster.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to increasing the number of joint risk and threat monitoring mechanisms and systems supported by the Organization and partners to enhance delivery of early warnings related to agriculture, food security and nutrition, which may mitigate instability and conflict - e.g. on climate change, food price volatility, food insecurity, and food chain crises - and to making this information publicly available and to shape humanitarian and development responses.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to institutionalize a mechanism to monitor damages and losses caused by disasters and crises to agriculture, forestry, and fisheries to better inform policy decision-making.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Core Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to accelerate the reduction of disaster and climate-related risks through the coherent implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, as well as other relevant strategies and programs of action, including the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to improve the understanding, anticipation and preparedness for disaster and climate-related risks by investing in data, analysis and early warning, and developing evidence-based decision-making processes that result in early action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) continued to refine and publish the FAO Global Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) Report (https://www.fao.org/emergencies/fao-in-action/ewea/en/) – a tool which informs decision makers to better prepare for and respond to food security and agriculture crises. Four quarterly public reports were produced in 2017, with improvements to the design and methodology, including a seasonality map, funding gaps and an increased focus on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis.

    FAO continued to develop and pilot (Pacific Region, Sudan, Mongolia) the Early Warning Early Action System which translates forecasts and early warnings into anticipatory action.

    In response to the drought affecting the Horn of Africa, the FAO internal mechanism released USD 1.2 million to support Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia with early action interventions. Activities included provision of feed, water rehabilitation and veterinary drugs in a bid to protect core livestock breeding herds and safeguard people’s livelihoods and food security.

    In July 2017 FAO set out to gather quantitative and qualitative evidence on the cost effectiveness of these early actions in Kenya. Preliminary results from this study demonstrate that for every USD 1 dollar spent on livestock interventions, beneficiary households had a return of almost USD 3.5 in terms of livestock saved, livestock body conditions improved and increase in milk production.

    Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for ENSO (Niño/La Niña) events have been approved for release in early 2018 by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC). The SOPs are intended to help catalyze and guide earlier humanitarian and development action to future ENSO-related extreme weather events. The interagency process draws on expertise and information provided from a wide breadth of UN agencies, International non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and climate advisors.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    Return-on-Investment (RoI) is a performance measure to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. FAO is employing this methodology across its pilots in Kenya, Mongolia, Sudan and Madagascar. Positive results have been extracted from Kenya, which demonstrated benefits of early actions and investing in such interventions.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Funding amounts
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    As the EWEA system expands, more countries are asking for support/pilots. This poses an increasing challenge to be met by limited funding. Increased funding in this area of work is critical to its roll-out and adoption at country and regional levels. The collection of ROI evidence is key in 2018.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    The Global EWEA Report will be strengthened to provide regular early warning updates on emerging or deteriorating food crises and recommendations on how to mitigate them. The EWEA Country Toolkit will be finalized and used to build capacity and train regional and country offices and national counterparts in high risk countries. Advocacy will continue to increase the volume of Early Action resources available (aim of USD 40 million). With the SOPs endorsed, formalization of roles and responsibilities will be finalized.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    A broader system-wide shift towards EWEA is needed to truly see a transformation at scale where disasters are prevented and not continuously responded to. FAO will use its technical expertise, experience in EWEA as well as global reach to build on achievements and advocate for this transformation through partnerships with UN and NGO partners as well as governments, donors and the scientific community. 

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    FAO co-lead with OCHA the work on Inter Agency SOPs for EWEA for El Niño/La Niña events. The Global ENSO Analytical Cell which implements the SOPs has been activated once in response to an El Niño warning in 2017, warning the Resident Coordinators (RC) of high risk countries.

     

    Keywords

    Community resilience, Disaster Risk Reduction, Local action

  • 4C
    Deliver collective outcomes: transcend humanitarian-development divides

    Individual Commitments (5)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO commits to adopt a new model of working, based on a coordinated analysis of vulnerability as well as other tools and processes such as multi-year planning that enable humanitarian-development collaboration to meet humanitarian needs, and reduce people's risk and vulnerability and increase resilience at national levels.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to continue working with national and regional bodies in over 40 countries in developing capacities for food security and nutrition information analysis and resilience measurement, e.g. under the joint European Union-FAO country driven information on Food Security, Nutrition and Resilience for Decision Making programme.
    • Capacity
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to effectively link financial contributions to ensure multi-year humanitarian planning and programming through its corporate Country Programming Framework to cover the full risk management cycle, with an explicit prioritization of prevention and resilience building, and to incorporate exit strategies linked to more involvement of development and other planning and programming.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO commits to engaging in joint vulnerability and needs assessments that are articulated around a resilience framework and strategic collective outcomes.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • FAO recommits to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security. The right to food and the human rights-based approach are part of the corporate commitments of FAO under its 2010-2019 strategic framework, and are substantively interrelated with other cross-cutting issues in the various areas of work of FAO, such as governance, gender and nutrition.
    • Advocacy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Other-4C

    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supported Colombia to increase the national consensus on the implementation of the right to adequate food. FAO has expanded its work with Parliamentarians on the right to adequate food, e.g. through a partnership with the Pan-African Parliament to strengthen the capacities of a regional Parliamentary Front against Hunger. The work by the Parliamentary Front in Guatemala has led to the adoption of two national laws in 2017, on family farming and on school feeding, the latter of which led to an increase of resources for school feeding programmes. 

    The global Food Security Cluster is developing a multi-sector joint analytical framework for protracted crises which is supported by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).

    Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis and planning towards collective outcomes

    FAO conducted or supported 21 needs assessments during 2017, the majority of which jointly with partners. New needs assessment methodologies were introduced, including the development of a Fall Armyworm Risk Index.

    Through the joint EU-FAO country driven Information on Food Security, Nutrition and Resilience for Decision Making programme, a major achievement in terms of coordinated food security analysis has been the publication of the 2018 Global Report on Food Crises.The report is the result of a multi-agency collaborative effort which includes regional institutions - Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), and Central American Integration System (SICA) - to present a clear and comprehensive picture of acute food insecurity in countries affected by food crises.

    With the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), FAO prepared the study ‘Living up to the Promise of Multi-year Financing’[1]: to advocate for investments in actions across the humanitarian-development nexus to reduce need by strengthening preparedness and resilience.

    [1] https://www.fao.org/emergencies/resources/documents/resources-detail/en/c/1061518/

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • By reporting to, or using reports prepared for, UN principal organs, UN governing boards, or other international bodies
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    The Right to Food work is part of FAO’s strategic framework; its monitoring framework is results oriented and the indicators include qualifiers that allow measurement of incremental advances in food security and nutrition policy processes.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    • Right to food: demand driven support to policy processes require flexibility and patience from all stakeholders, including resource partners.
    • Joint needs assessments: reaching a compromise among all actors involved.
    • Multi-year funding flows have to catch up with policy commitments, there is still a lack of flexible and risk-tolerant development financing.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    • To continue providing support and expand upon the implementation of the Right to Food Guidelines.
    • To continue supporting joint need assessments in 2018 including strengthening of capacities at all levels.
    • To advance on the development of the multi-sector joint analytical framework for protracted crisis through the global Food Security Cluster.
    • Continue building the business case for multi-year financing, with NRC, OCHA and UNICEF.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    There is still a lack of understanding of how to plan, design and implement multi-year financing investments in ways to achieve significant efficiency and effectiveness gains and capitalize on those gains. Further analysis will be required to ensure that multi-year financing is used where it can achieve the greatest impact, targeting the right actors at the right levels and for the right duration.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    The global Food Security Cluster (gFSC) has been advocating for more systematic joint and cross-sectorial analysis of humanitarian needs that considers seasonal and livelihoods factors in defining the preconditions for outcome-based joint humanitarian planning. Led by the gFSC, funded by ECHO, all global clusters will develop, such a framework for protracted crises.

     

    Keywords

    Humanitarian-development nexus

  • 5A
    Invest in local capacities

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO commits to strengthening the mechanisms for coordination at country level and globally to maximize policy coherence and a common theory of change across pooled funds and advocate for sustained capitalization of pooled funds.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to empower national and local humanitarian action by increasing the share of financing accessible to local and national humanitarian actors and supporting the enhancement of their national delivery systems, capacities and preparedness planning.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    Direct funding to national/local actors

    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) issued a new manual to provide the organization with the required framework for the engagement of FAO in partnership arrangements involving the transfer of FAO-managed funds to Operational Partners for implementation of projects.

    FAO has been building national capacities to prevent, detect and respond to animal disease emergencies, working with local government and partners. Animal health capacity was increased in more than 30 countries in 2017.

    Capacity development programmes on cash transfers are being delivered to local partners including governments to implement more effective cash-based interventions. In 2017 a total of 36 countries benefitted from capacity development, cash preparedness programming and operational support related to cash-based transfers.

    In northeast Nigeria in 2017 FAO trained local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 16 States and Federal Capital Territories (FCT) in food security, vulnerability and Cadre Harmonisé processes and implementation.

    Other-5A

    The Global Food Security Cluster and the German-international NGO, Welthungerhilfe, have developed a joint video project with support from the German Federal Foreign Office. Within this, a series of videos illustrate the importance of partnering in humanitarian crises, how local partners can get involved in Food Security Clusters (FSCs) in countries and how they can collaborate across various humanitarian crises and responses. The videos also tell the story of the important role local actors play in humanitarian response. Since their release in early 2017, the videos have been used in different countries as a tool to raise awareness, create dialogue (especially to identify capacity building needs) and strengthen participation of local actors in country clusters.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    The concept of localisation has been included in gFSC Strategic Plan 2017-19 under Result 4 - Fostered programmatic approach to coordination action; Focus Area 2 - Decentralization and localization of preparedness. The gFSC will also analyse how engagement of local actors could be optimized by reviewing different country coordination models.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Information management/tools
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    FAO is an active member of the Grand Bargain localisation workstream and plans to participate in the planned localisation pilot missions. FAO will contribute through the sharing of best practices in humanitarian response partnerships. In addition FAO, will explore how to increase the country level financing solutions for local actors, support local actors to strengthen their capacity and engage local actors in coordination mechanisms.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    The long standing presence of FAO in many countries has helped to build solid relationships with governments to which FAO provides support also through capacity building efforts.

    Keywords

    Cash, Community resilience, Disaster Risk Reduction, Local action

  • 5B
    Invest according to risk

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO commits to expanding its work, together with its partners in the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, on forecast-based financing and risk financing with members of the SPIAC-B on developing shock-responsive social protection mechanisms.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to accelerate the reduction of disaster and climate-related risks through the coherent implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, as well as other relevant strategies and programs of action, including the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to invest in risk management, preparedness and crisis prevention capacity to build the resilience of vulnerable and affected people.
    • Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in partnership with the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement has developed an interactive tool to facilitate policy dialogue at country level on how to use national social protection programmes to manage risk and is currently supporting academic research, training modules and toolkits to translate policy processes into nationally lead operations.

    FAO co-organized a COP23 side event on “Development and climate days” leading efforts around the role of Social Protection in addressing clime related shock and stresses.

    The Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) programme has activated six early action projects in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Madagascar and Mongolia. To enable early actions to be quickly and efficiently implemented in these countries, FAO established a dedicated Early Action Fund within the existing Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation (SFERA) mechanism. The Early Action Fund allows FAO country offices to rapidly access funds once the early warning triggers have been reached, indicating an impending disaster. The Fund is activated according to a set of precise criteria, including the likelihood and severity of the risk, FAO’s comparative advantage and capacity, the type and the timing of the Early Actions proposed among others.

    The EWEA programme has employed the Return on Investment (RoI) model. RoI is a performance measure, used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. The first roll-out of the RoI model was in Kenya.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    The pilot case-studies, when appropriate, undergo the Return on Investment process. Through this process evidence on lessons learned and best practices are also captured to refine the system.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    As the EWEA system expands and more countries are asking for support or pilots, this poses an increasing challenge to be met by limited funding. The collection of RoI evidence is key in 2018, and a priority for EWEA, to encourage greater investment in this area of work.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    For 2018, the EWEA programme will roll out its RoI methodology to three more countries: Sudan, Madagascar and Mongolia. This will help build evidence and confidence to encourage donors to invest in this area. The Philippines and Guatemala will also become pilot countries of the EWEA programme to further test and refine the methodology. This will be conducted alongside the roll-out of the system at a regional and country level.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    With the RoI information, the EWEA team will work closely with partners who are exploring this mode of work. The team will work with the Mongolian Red Cross and Red Cross Climate Center to generate complimentary RoI results to present a harmonious result to Government of Mongolia.  The EWEA team will work closely with governments and stakeholders to ensure best practices are applied and learning from the roll-out of this new system is shared and acted upon.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    Preliminary results from the Kenya study demonstrated that for every 1 USD spent on livestock interventions, the households had a return of almost 3.5 in terms of livestock saved, livestock body conditions improved and increase in milk production. A full report will be available in early 2018.

     

    Keywords

    Community resilience, Disaster Risk Reduction

  • 5D
    Finance outcomes, not fragmentation: shift from funding to financing

    Joint Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO commits to, together with OCHA, UNDP, the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office and the Multilateral Development Banks, including the World Bank, towards an integrated framework for funding in and for protracted crisis that supports a drive towards greater alignment across humanitarian, development, peace and human rights actors, and captures various sources of financing.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    Partners: OCHA, UNDP-MPTF Office, Multilateral Development Banks, including the World Bank

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO commits to promote flexible and un-earmarked funding mechanisms to better strengthen coherence of interventions and adjust to the evolution of needs.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity
    • FAO commits to removing the internal institutional barriers between humanitarian and development finance, both at headquarters and at country level, in order to mobilize the right mix of humanitarian and development finance to end needs.
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to enable coherent financing that avoids fragmentation by supporting collective outcomes over multiple years, supporting those with demonstrated comparative advantage to deliver in context.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to promote and increase predictable, multi-year, unearmarked, collaborative and flexible humanitarian funding toward greater efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of humanitarian action for affected people.
    • Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to broaden and adapt the global instruments and approaches to meet urgent needs, reduce risk and vulnerability and increase resilience, without adverse impact on humanitarian principles and overall action (as also proposed in Round Table on "Changing Lives").
    • Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    During 2017, the number of donors directly contributing to FAO’s Special Fund for Emergencies and Rehabilitation Activities (SFERA un-earmarked pooled fund) increased. Belgium and Sweden (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency - SIDA) are contributing on an annual basis to the SFERA Level 3 surge funding window and to the Agricultural emergency response window. Specific credits are being attributed to donors making un-earmarked contribution in the SFERA annual reports submitted to FAO governing bodies.

    In 2017, the FAO governing bodies endorsed the establishment of a new window for Early Action activities, for which FAO is actively seeking donor contributions.

    FAO’s project cycle for both humanitarian and development projects follows the same steps, however in order to be more effective and to quickly respond to emergencies, for humanitarian assistance projects FAO applies a fast track procedure (this implies the skipping of some steps in the project cycle).

    As of January 2018 a new cost recovery policy was adopted by FAO and applies to all FAO projects, this streamlines the internal project support costs. Previously two different cost recovery approaches were applied for humanitarian and development projects.

    In 2017, FAO signed multi-year funding agreements with the World Bank for Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Regional Eastern Africa, following the Word Bank new engagement in fragile states.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • Through multi-stakeholder processes or initiatives (e.g. IASC, Grand Bargain, Charter for Change, etc).
    B. How are you assessing whether progress on commitments is leading toward change in the direction of the transformation?

    FAO is preparing an annual report on the Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation Activities (SFERA) is submitted by its Finance Committee: https://www.fao.org/3/a-ms514e.pdf.

    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Buy-in
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Donor buy-in to provide unearmarked contributions to humanitarian partners, including FAO’s emergency programme, remains limited. To the contrary, earmarking is getting tighter, e.g. donors are putting increasing restrictions on the use of implementing partners in view of anti-terrorist measures.

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    For 2018, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)  agreed to contribute to the new Early Action window. FAO will continue the dialogue with donors to mobilize un-earmarked resources in support of the resilience programme.

    At country level, FAO has developed multi-year resilience strategies in several protracted crisis countries, and will continue to support Country Offices to develop such strategies. Dialogue with the World Bank and other similar donors will continue to enhance greater alignment across humanitarian, development and peace actors.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Increased buy-in from donors to provide un-earmarked, multi-year and more flexible contributions is needed.

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    FAO has signed multi-year funding agreements with the World Bank for Yemen and Somalia, following the Word Bank new engagement in fragile states. The dialogue with the World Bank and other similar donors will continue to enhance greater alignment across humanitarian, development and peace actors.

     

    Keywords

    Humanitarian-development nexus

  • 5E
    Diversify the resource base and increase cost-efficiency

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • FAO is committed to implementing the commitments under the Grand Bargain, particularly on improving transparency through its participation in International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).
    • Financial
    • Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to increase substantially and diversify global support and share of resources for humanitarian assistance aimed to address the differentiated needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises in fragile situations and complex emergencies, including increasing cash-based programming in situations where relevant.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to promote and increase predictable, multi-year, unearmarked, collaborative and flexible humanitarian funding toward greater efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of humanitarian action for affected people.
    • Invest in Humanity
    1. Highlight the concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2017 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures.

    In April 2016, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) became a signatory to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and through an interdepartmental task team analyzing requirements, identifying data sources and building reporting solutions, since May 2017 FAO is providing quarterly IATI data on all its projects, meeting IATI requirements.

    2. A. How are you measuring progress toward achieving your commitments? Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Through existing, internal systems or frameworks for monitoring, reporting and/or evaluation.
    • Other: A formal governance of the FAO IATI publication, has also been agreed, whereby progress and quality of reporting is monitored by senior management
    3. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Other: understanding the standards and identifying the appropriate data sources
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Same as 3A

    4. Highlight actions planned for 2018 to advance implementation of your commitments in order to achieve this transformation.

    FAO plans to increase the scope, improve the quality of reporting and streamline the preparation process in 2018. FAO reports IATI data for all its projects and, in 2018, plans to expand the scope to cover all FAO activities, including those which are part of FAO’s normative work and funded by assessed contributions. FAO is planning to further increase the automation of the reporting in order to be able to report more frequently in future.

    5. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Same as 4

    6. List any good practice or examples of innovation undertaken individually or in cooperation with others to advance this transformation.

    The FAO IATI project was implemented as an interdisciplinary effort involving colleagues from a number of different functions and liaising with other UN agencies. This open and collaborative approach led to a high quality end product with good buy-in from stakeholders using very limited resources.

    Keywords

    Transparency / IATI

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