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Self Report 2019

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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    A partnership between the Interpeace/International Peacebuilding Advisory Team (IPAT) and FAO has resulted in the development and piloting of context analysis and conflict sensitivity tools for country offices. Training in conflict sensitivity and context analysis was provided to FAO staff in 14 country offices. Funding has also been approved for three sub-regional conflict analysts/conflict sensitivity specialists to facilitate country office conflict sensitivity mainstreaming. A corporate plan for upscaling conflict sensitivity across FAO resilience and emergency programming will be finalised and rolled out in 2019.

    FAO has engaged in various peacebuilding activities, including 16 Peacebuilding Fund projects approved in 2018 in the Sahel, sub-Saharan Africa, Horn of Africa and Yemen. FAO/WFP publishes semi-annual reports on monitoring food security in countries with conflict situations, as part of a series of regular briefings to the UN Security Council 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 EU, that effort now involves a network of partners and donors including FEWS NET, FAO, IGAD, CILSS, UNICEF, OCHA, WFP and USAID.

    2. 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?

    Extensive efforts have been undertaken on awareness raising on conflict analysis, conflict sensitivity and contributions towards sustaining peace, though further work is required to ensure buy-in and sustainability. Continued funding is also required for data-driven analysis on food security and resilience measurement.

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

    Develop multi-stakeholder partnerships to leverage the influence of existing work on sustaining peace at the sub-regional and country level in concert with joint-policies at the global level. Invest in analysis to establish an evidence base to further develop the area of work.

  • 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    In March, FAO approved, adopted and published a Corporate Framework to support sustainable peace in the context of Agenda 2030, which commits the Organization to "broadening and deepening its work on conflict prevention, mitigation, resolution and recovery." FAO-specific context analysis and conflict sensitivity tools and guidance have been piloted and developed.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • A Global Undertaking on Health in Crisis Settings
    2. 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
    • Human resources/capacity
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    As there are an array of competing initiatives, programmes and priorities, internal collaboration is key together with multi-stakeholder partnerships at the country and sub-regional level to ensure effective implementation.

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

    Internal structures and practices have reinforced the need for a longer-term deliberative strategy to ensure buy-in, funding and sustainability. Further awareness raising is required at all levels of the Organization and best practices should be extensively documented, including challenges, and widely disseminated to an internal and external audience.

  • 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    FAO’s Corporate Framework to support sustainable peace in the context of Agenda 2030 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.” Since its publication to an external audience in March 2018, the document has created a basis for discussions and partnerships with peacebuilding organisations, donors, peer agencies and partners on ways of working in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.

    2. 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.
    • Human resources/capacity
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Capacities are being developed on conflict sensitivity and programme design contributing to sustainable peace, though these capacities and the funding needed to support such roles requires time to develop along with concerted efforts and resources dedicated to awareness raising.

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

    Developing country and sub-regional partnerships to accompany recent FAO investments in sub-regional conflict capacities.

  • 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Gender-based violence prevention and response

    In commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and as part of the UNiTE campaign to End Violence against Women, a workshop on Protecting People at Risk in Emergencies and Conflict was organised at FAO in November 2018. The event highlighted how the Organization supports countries in the design and implementation of food security and nutrition programmes in ways that prevent and mitigate the impacts of gender-based violence, and protect women and men who are most at risk in conflict and disasters settings

    Other

    FAO has developed its guidance on the implementation of the IASC Accountability for Affected Populations (AAP) commitments, which has minimum and recommended actions for accountability and engagement throughout the project cycle. Through its accountability guidance FAO has worked on identifying common barriers to accessing information and providing feedback among different groups, especially women, elderly, youth and disabled community members, and addressing these barriers through alternative sources/channels of information flow.

    The guidance is now being piloted in several countries and different contexts e.g. in the West Bank and Gaza Strip the AAP commitments have been integrated into various management and implementation processes.

    FAO developed indicators for monitoring accountability commitments, including information sharing, access to information, satisfaction with quality of support and feedback on FAO/partner interaction with affected people. These indicators are to be mapped, at country level, to both internal and external referral channels to ensure timely and adequate responses to feedback received, where appropriate. FAO is mainstreaming these indicators into its monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning framework. These indicators were used in FAO's response to the Sahel Pastoral Crisis to obtain feedback from focus groups in several countries as to their experience with FAO, partners and its programme and to capture the different experiences of men and women in the context of the response.

     

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action
    • Grand Bargain
    2. 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 challenges reduced the potential impact of our interventions and the number of country activities that could be supported.

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

    1. FAO will continue to develop and implement 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.

    2. FAO will continue to increase 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.

    Keywords

    Gender, People-centred approach, Quality and accountability standards

  • 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Refugees

    In 2018, FAO developed the FAO Migration Framework, which identifies four areas of work on migration for FAO. The thematic area of work "Promoting resilience and agricultural livelihoods for migrants and host communities" reiterates FAO's commitment to promote sustainable agricultural livelihoods and the participation of refugees in agriculture and food systems, as a crucial element for strengthening social cohesion and enhancing economic development.

    The FAO interventions carried out under this area of work are geared towards:

    - supporting refugees in accessing employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in agriculture and within food systems in destination areas, including in developed countries, and advocating for the rights of agricultural migrant workers.

    - supporting the restoration of refugees' livelihoods in areas bordering conflict-affected countries restoring refugees’ livelihoods;

    - supporting peace sustaining efforts by working together with rural communities to rebuild trust and promote dialogue between refugees and host communities;

    - supporting refugees in accessing land and assets in host communities;

    - supporting food security and nutrition interventions targeted to migrants, including refugees.

    Other

    In recent years successful support was provided to selected governments to abolish discriminatory legislation and practices and incorporate gender equality and GBV work in projects and programmes. The FAO Dimitra Clubs, the Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools (JFFLS) and SAFE interventions increased youth inclusion, women’s access to resources and services, and reduced GBV risks.

    FAO has been a member of the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development (IANYD) since 2012. As part of the IANYD, FAO, is a contributing member of the working group on ‘’Youth, peace and security’’ led by UNDESA. This latter framework of collaboration has been strengthened via a series of training. Workshops in Burkina Faso and Togo (further ones are foreseen in 2019) have been organized for youth organizations towards the implementation of resolution 2250. Members of the private sector and civil society were strong contributors to the various themes of the workshops.

    In 2017/18, FAO has implemented projects to support young refugees and IDPs (Mali, Somalia), while integrating youth employment aspects in overall agricultural programmes in fragile contexts (West Bank/Gaza Strip, Turkey etc.) and programmes supporting the reintegration of former young combatants and pirates (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Somalia)

    IDPs (due to conflict, violence, and disaster)

    The FAO Migration Framework reiterates FAO's commitment to promote sustainable agricultural livelihoods and participation of IDPs in agriculture and food systems, as a crucial element for strengthening social cohesion and enhancing economic development.

    The FAO interventions carried out under this area of work are geared towards:

    - supporting IDPs in accessing employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in agriculture and within food systems in destination areas, including in developed countries, and advocating for the rights of agricultural migrant workers;

    - promoting social cohesion within rural communities, and between IDPs and host communities;

    - supporting the improvement of scarce and fragile natural resources management and the development of inclusive and environmentally sustainable livelihood strategies;

    - supporting IDPs in accessing land and assets in host communities;

    - supporting food security and nutrition interventions targeted to IDPs through access to agricultural inputs, capacity building in production and post-harvest techniques and e-vouchers for the consumption of fresh products

    Cross-border, disaster and climate related displacement

    In the FAO Migration Framework, FAO commits to work in rural areas of origin to minimize the adverse drivers of migration, including by increasing the resilience of agricultural livelihoods to threats and crises. Conflicts, natural and human-made crises disasters are among the main drivers of forced displacement. FAO supports rural populations who are affected or likely to be affected by these events by putting in place a number of strategies and tools for prevention, preparedeness and response. FAO also promotes climate change adaptation to mitigate the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.

    In 2018, FAO signed a Memorandum of Understanding with IOM to further strengthen cooperation at global and country levels. The MoU identifies three areas of collaboration: (i) evidence generation and knowledge sharing; (ii) advocacy and awareness-raising on the nexus between migration, food security, agricultural and rural development; and (iii) design, implementation and monitoring of joint country-level activities. FAO and IOM are strengthening their collaboration along the development-humanitarian-peace nexus, working in both development and humanitarian contexts.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Global Alliance for Urban Crises
    • Grand Bargain
    • The Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action
    2. 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
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Funding amounts, modalities and timeline for spending are challenges for working along the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, affecting the sustainability of the results.

    There needs to be evidence to showcase that early action can work in conflict and migration environments to encourage donors to fund the modality.

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

    It is important to strengthen cooperation along the triple nexus and ensure coordination at national, regional and international levels. It is also vital to strengthen policy coherence and ensure agriculture and rural stakeholders are involved in migration work.

    A stronger commitment is needed by the Organization and external partners with the allocation of adequate financial and human resources to implement the above mentioned actions.

    Keywords

    Displacement, Migrants, 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Empowerment of women and girls

    The Organization is committed to address gender concerns and empower women when designing and implementing humanitarian projects and programs. Participatory approaches and tools were designed to better integrate the target beneficiaries in the design process, and identify and address their specific needs and concerns in order to ensure equal benefits from the intervention. Increasing efforts are made on the formulation of gender-sensitive indicators and the collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data. Some efforts were made to mainstream gender in value chains and to put more efforts into gender analysis with an aim of empowering women and integrating women’s groups in development and humanitarian interventions.

    Gender equality programming

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

    Activities were carried out in different countries to increase the capacity of local partners such as capacity building training on Gender, Accountability to Affected Populations, PSEA, Safe Access to Fuel Energy (SAFE) and protection mainstreaming in collaboration with the Food Security Cluster.

    FAO, together with WFP and IFAD are implementing a multi-year resilience programme in DRC, Niger and Somalia, which has placed a great focus on gender equality, through womens’ empowerment and gender mainstreaming in all interventions. Activities will support equal participation of women and men and ensure that specificities of men, women, boys and girls are taken into account. Women’s active participation was encouraged through awareness raising campaigns at the village level in order to consider their specific needs and vulnerabilities. The production of Seasonal Livelihood Calendars allowed to plan agricultural activities more flexible making it easier for women to continue to carry out chores such as water collection and meal preparation.

    Other

    FAO has successfully supported the inclusion of gender equality considerations in many 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. This material is used by governments and other stakeholders to develop more gender-equitable strategies, policies and programmes.

    A specific principle on women’s empowerment and gender equality was negotiated in the World Food Security Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (CFS-FFA). Technical guidance and policy advice are given to member countries to promote a gender-sensitive policy, legal and institutional environment.

    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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Strengthening national/local leadership and systems

    Throughout 2018, Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) and shock-responsive protection teams continued to make critical linkages between the two complementary areas of work. A framework is currently being developed which will provide key linkages between the two areas and inform country offices on how to bridge the two thematic areas. Training materials have also been developed to support a workshop on social protection, climate risk and disaster management. The delivery of this workshop will first take place in Bangkok, Thailand for the Asia and the Pacific Region in April 2019, and will then be rolled out to other regions.

    FAO has been strengthening its capacity to scale up regional and country level work on risk informed and shock responsive social protection. It provided and continues to support countries to develop and strengthen such systems. FAO continues to work in close partnership with WFP, EU, UNICEF, World Bank, ASEAN communities, Climate Center of the Red Cross, GIZ, in developing a common approach to this area of work, enhance operational knowledge on how to strengthen linkages, while enhancing the impact of such systems. FAO continues to invest in capacity development processes, including with the ITC/ILO Center and others, on the operationalization of risk informed and shock reponsive social protection.

    Other

    An important part of FAO’s work on localization in humanitarian situations is undertaken through the FAO-WFP led global Food Security Cluster (gFSC). 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. Under that focus area, the gFSC will continue serving as a hub for partners, including local partners and mainstream localization into its core business and provide guidance in collaboration with the IASC and others, who are already involved for example in the development of a baseline or localization marker. The gFSC will also analyse how engagement of local actors could be optimized by reviewing different country coordination models. In this regard, the gFSC has been promoting the participation of local NGOs. National NGOs constitute around 30% of all partners in Clusters around the world. A couple of countries have elected a national partner as the Cluster’s co-facilitating agency.

    Cash-based programming

    In 2018, FAO continued to increase the systematic consideration of cash-based transfers as modalities for both its humanitarian and development assistance. FAO delivered $41 million worth of cash and vouchers to 2.2 million beneficiaries in 25 countries through mainly cash-for-work and unconditional cash transfers, increasingly often in combination with livelihoods inputs and assets (cash+), to increase the transformative impact of cash assistance. Cash transfer-related capacity development supported FAO teams and local partners to take up the modalities through face-to-face and online training.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    2. 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.
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    • Preparedness
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    As it is a new area of thinking, advocacy efforts need be ramped up to showcase to governments and organizations the benefits of combining social protection and Early Warning Early Action modalities.

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

    To conduct a case-study which can be used as a lessons learned benchmark.

    Keywords

    Cash, Disaster Risk Reduction, Local action, Preparedness, Strengthening local systems

  • 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Disaster risk reduction and disaster risk management (including resilience)

    In 2018, FAO provided support to 22 member countries in order to enhance their coordination mechanisms and resource mobilization strategies for risk reduction and crisis management in agriculture related sectors. FAO supported in 2018 a total of 22 countries (Colombia, Dominica, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Panama, Senegal, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Viet Nam, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and 3 regional institutions in Africa, Asia and Near East, with the formulation of strategies/plans for risk reduction and crisis management for the agriculture sector (13 countries), the integration of agriculture in the National Adaptation Plans (NAP-Ag) (11 countries) and/or the development of the national adaptation plan for fisheries.

    Additionally, FAO enhanced capacities of policy-makers and decision makers in 6 countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger and Togo) for the inclusion of adaptation and mitigation in agriculture policies, highlighting the opportunities provided by the NDCs.

    Preparedness

    Key interventions at country-level included capacity development for the institutionalization of the global Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) indicator C2 on “Loss caused by disasters in agriculture” in 15 countries. This comprised capacity building to strengthen damage and loss information systems and to apply FAO methodology for SDG and SFDRR reporting, thereby enabling countries to better plan for risk sensitive development, and to effectively report, analyse and track their progress within the SDG and SFDRR monitoring frameworks.

    In 2018, FAO as co-chair of A2R ran a contest focused on innovation on social protection and risk insurance.

    Furthermore, as a core partner of the CADRI Partnership, in 2018 FAO supported Bolivia, Botswana, Comoros, Jordan and Zimbabwe in their development of multi-sectoral DRR strategies from an agriculture perspective.

    Moreover, FAO has actively contributed to the development of the UN Plan of Action on DRR for resilience and is a member of the UN Senior Leadership Group on Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience. Finally, FAO contributed to the development of the UN Resilience Framework as part of the interagency drafting team.

    Other

    FAO’s Return on Investment model enables the agency to analyse the cost effectiveness of acting early. Over 2018, early actions were valued across three countries: Sudan, to protect livestock ahead of localized dry spells, Madagascar to support small-scale farmers ahead of drought, and Mongolia to support vulnerable herders ahead of a severe winter season. These empirical studies, the first of their kind for the livelihood sector, provide a critical snapshot into the value for money of acting before an anticipated crisis has become a humanitarian disaster. The Cost to Benefit ratio, which describes how much assisted households gained for every USD $1 invested, ranges from 6.7 in Sudan, 2.5 in Madagascar, and 7.1 in Mongolia., Moreover, in 2018, the Inter-agency Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for ENSO (La Nina/El Nino) events were approved and endorsed by the IASC.

    Disaster risk data collection/analysis

    The Early Warning Early Action Report is a quarterly forward looking analytical summary of the major global disaster risks to agriculture and food security, where the implementation of early actions in the coming 3-4 months is recommended to prevent and mitigate likely impacts. The summary is rooted in the analysis provided by existing corporate information and Early Warning Systems (EWS). The report represents a summary and a prioritization of analysis provided by FAO's corporate and joint multi-agency information and early warning systems.

    Furthermore, in 2018, FAO published a global report on “The impact of disasters and crises on agriculture and food security”, which reveals an agriculture-specific methodology for evaluating damage and losses from disasters.

    FAO, together with WFP, IFAD, UNICEF and WHO prepared the "State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018", which analyses the drivers of hunger and malnutrition, and this year focused on how climate variability is threating to erode and reverse gains made in ending hunger.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    2. 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
    • Funding amounts
    • Funding modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Two fundamental challenges for early warning early action (EWEA) are the availability of reliable and forward-looking data at the local level, combined with commitment from donors to invest in flexible funding mechanisms.

    Bridging the gap between data producers of EW systems and users would allow for better use of information to forecast crises.

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

    Advocate with donors on the effectiveness of early actions. Early action has proven to safeguard lives and livelihoods ahead of shocks, and FAO needs to continue collecting this evidence with partners.

    Work closely with forecasting agencies to understand the concept of early warning early action (EWEA) and provide examples of what their products can achieve. Work on bridging the gap between meteorological data and vulnerability information to inform impact-based forecasting.

    Keywords

    Disaster Risk Reduction, Preparedness, Strengthening local systems

  • 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

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

    During 2018 and thanks to a contribution received by ECHO, the global Food Security Cluster in a joint effort with all Global Clusters, has worked on enhancing the Clusters' capacity for joint needs analysis and priority setting. Following testing missions in support of the formulation of the 2019 Humanitarian Needs Overivew (HNO) in Mali, CAR and Nigeria, the group formulated a Joint Intersectoral Analysis Framework (JIAF) and started to work on collating the most relevant sectoral indicators and analysis step-by-step guidance. The group has held four face to face meetings and regular (at least monthly) calls. The work will continue in 2019, with more testing in the field as soon as the guidance will be ready and tested remotely.

    In the framework of the Global Network initiative, co-led by FAO, WFP and the EU, FAO continues to work with national and regional bodies in further developing capacities for food security and nutrition information analysis. The Global Report on Food Crisis was produced. The Report is the result of a consultative process involving a wide range of stakeholders, it brings together regional and national data and analysis into one report to provide a clear comprehensive picture of acute food insecurity in the many countries affected by food crises around the world.

    Financing Collective outcomes

    FAO, with Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and UNDP is co-leading the output IV of the IASC Humanitarian Financing Task Team work plan. Research is underway (including field missions to 6 countries) to contribute to making aid more effective and improving collaboration between humanitarian and development actors in fragile contexts and protracted crises. The study’s aim is to document how much predictable, multi-year, flexible financing is actually made available at country level and how it matches collective outcomes.

    Other

    In 2018, FAO continued the support to the implementation of the Peace Agreement in Colombia and the system to progressively guarantee the right to adequate food. At the global level in collaboration with Spain and supported by EU and IFAD, FAO organized a Global Parliamentarian Summit to eradicate hunger and malnutrition; particular efforts were made to facilitate participation from countries affected directly or indirectly by conflicts.

    FAO is currently implementing various multi-year projects and the impact evaluation of these will be carried out once they have ended. The 4 ongoing multi-year projects funded by Sida in the Sahel (Niger, Chad, Mali, Cameroon) will be ending in December 2019. The documentation of the impacts is planned to be carried out in 2020. Most of FAO's activities aim at increasing the Resilience of Livelihoods to threats and crisis, therefore, a multi-year response plan allows for a better planning and implementation of resilience activities with a longer term view. Seasonality of agricultural support and local capacity building can be addressed in a better way in MYF.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    2. 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: Right to Food: The adoption of a human rights based approach to food security and nutrition is being deemphasized due to growing hesitance
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Joint need assessment: During the preliminary field testing that took place in 2018 it was noted that the joint analysis was easier in contexts that were data rich and where data were coming from a variety of sectors. Also, multi cluster engagement is fundamental.

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

    Joint need assessments: All Clusters need to actively participate to the process both globally and locally and foster enhanced data collection at field level for their sector.

    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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Capacity building of national/local actors

    FAO continued partnering with local responders in 2018. Approx. 13% of FAO funding received for emergency projects was transferred to local and national responders. The long presence of FAO in many countries has helped to build a long-established relationship with governments to which FAO provides support to develop their capacity in the areas of the mandate of the organization. FAO has been working for many years with hundreds of local civil society organizations (NGOs, community-based organizations, professional associations, networks, etc.) and national governments in technical work, emergency field operations, training and capacity building, and advocacy of best agricultural practices.

    A brief has been developed to introduce FAO staff and partners to both the relevance and practical know-how of addressing gender-based violence in food security and agriculture interventions: https://www.fao.org/3/a-i7768e.pdf. The paper also highlights the work of FAO and its partners to protect, support and restore sustainable livelihoods for men and women in rural and agricultural settings, and when delivered in safety and with dignity, is inherently protective.

    Activities were carried out in different countries to increase the capacity of local partners on: Capacity Building training on Gender, AAP, PSEA, Safe Access to Fuel Energy (SAFE) and protection mainstreaming in collaboration with the Food Security Cluster.

    Other

    Uganda, Nigeria and Afghanistan reported that local partners are better placed to access hard to reach areas not accessible to FAO personnel due to security concerns. They are able to access the locations and conduct beneficiary selection and registration, distribution of inputs and delivery extension service and training. They have better knowledge of the local context including the environment and socio-economic dynamics. The local partners are also well accepted by the communities, the role of the local NGOs is very important in meeting the overall objective of humanitarian assistance.

    Localisation was included in gFSC Strategic Plan 2017-19 under Result 4 and Focus Area 2. The gFSC has been promoting the participation of local NGOs, and national NGOs constitute around 30% of all partners in Clusters around the world. A couple of countries have elected a national partner as the Cluster’s co-facilitating agency. The gFSC will continue serving as a hub for partners, including local partners and mainstream localization into its core business and provide guidance in collaboration with the IASC and others,who are already involved in the development of a baseline or localization marker.

     

    Direct funding to national/local actors

    In Afghanistan, to increase funding for the local partners FSAC organized one national level and 4 regional level trainings on proposal and report writing. In Kabul, Mazar Sharif, Hirat and Jalalabad in total 80 staff of 22 local organizations were trained. To increase the capacity of local partners in conducting assessment, FSAC trained 18 staff of 6 local partners.

    Moreover, local partners were trained to ensure they have the right skills to implement emergency food security and livelihoods programme. A basic food security and livelihoods training programme was run by the Food Security Cluster team at national and regional level. In total 123 national staff of 18 national and 23 international organizations were trained.

    In Afghanistan local partners understand the areas much better then international stakeholders and have access to most of the areas across the country.They have established a trust with different parties involved in the active conflict and are still able to assess needs and provide lifesaving response.They have better access to government line ministries and can easily and quickly mobilize support

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    2. 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 modalities (earmarking, priorities, yearly agreements, risk aversion measures)
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Internal constraints many times impede to directly fund NGOs. Overall, FAO do not see much progress or willingness by the donors to move forward as they are stuck in their own regulations.

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

    Internal policies of both donors and recipient organizations should be revised in order to facilitate the transfer of funds to local organizations.

    Keywords

    Gender, 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    In October 2018, an MOU was signed between FAO and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The MOU ensures that collaboration through partnerships are based on areas of mutual interest benefiting and synergizing FAO’s work for early warning early action (EWEA) this includes three areas: (1) advocacy/global coordination; (2) technical exchange and shared learning; and (3) country level coordination/partnering.

    FAO and the Mongolian Red Cross began working closely together in October 2017, when they started investigating what information would give the best detailed picture of the likelihood, severity and impact of a dzud. Together, FAO and the Mongolian Red Cross used the same dzud risk map as the basis for planning their early interventions and worked off the same early warning information to establish their timings. They pooled their findings about risk and vulnerability to create the best information possible for programming. The two agencies were also able to swap skills. FAO’s technical knowledge on livestock management supported the design of the Mongolian Red Cross’s actions, allowing interventions to be run in a seamless and complementary way. The Mongolian Red Cross’s presence on the ground in the soums – or administrative districts – meant it could compliment FAO’s interventions and therefore reach a larger number of households. A technical paper will also be produced late 2019 which will highlight the results of these two projects. Mapping of future project collobrations is currently underway, with also a focus on incorporating shock-responsive social protection mechanisms. 

    At a global level, FAO has contributed to the content and organization of the International and/or Regional Dialogue Platform on Forecast based Financing (FbF) (as the main platform of exchanges in FbF), hosted by IFRC/German Red Cross. Furthermore, the two agencies have partners at various high-level events including HPNW 2019 and the upcoming GPDRR and Multi-Hazard Early Warning Conference.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    2. 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: Capacity to take up a structured collaboration at country level.
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Evidence is key for early warning early action (EWEA)/ Forecast based Financing, therefore it is critical to have country-level interventions conducted successfully with partners to help advocate for the modalities.

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

    Increase regional and country level capacities to support EWEA through trainings. Further encourage the set-up of regional EWEA hubs to support collaboration efforts between both organizations and identify opportunities.

    Keywords

    Disaster Risk Reduction, Preparedness

  • 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    In 2018, donor contributions received for FAO’s Special Fund for Emergencies and Rehabilitation Activities (SFERA un-earmarked pooled fund) decreased to USD12.4 million. Belgium and Sweden are contributing on an annual basis to the SFERA windows on Level 3 surge funding, agricultural emergency response, and Early action. Credits are being attributed to donors making un-earmarked contributions in the SFERA annual report: https://www.fao.org/3/i9669en/I9669EN.pdf.

    In 2018, FAO rolled out its new cost recovery policy, with indirect project support costs for voluntary contributions amounting to 7 percent of direct project support costs. The revised policy is designed to ensure that FAO’s costs are correctly measured and distributed among all funding sources, consistent with UN-system policy and UN General Assembly-encouraged practices.

    In 2018, in the framework of the Global Network (launched at the WHS in 2016 by the EU, FAO and WFP), the EU and FAO signed a contribution agreement for EUR 77 million to boost the resilience of millions of people struggling with severe recurrent food crises:    https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1155114/icode/

    The Global Network will guide country level programming by addressing the need to build knowledge and on typologies and drivers of crises and of successful context-based prevention, early action and response interventions. Particular attention will be paid to support actions aimed to protect and recover agri-food systems in contexts at risk of food crises, acknowledging the need to understand links and coordinate policies and actions in relation to conflict and insecurity, climate change, regional dynamics and demographic change, therefore working along the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.  

    2. 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)
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Donor buy-in to provide unearmarked contributions in the humanitarian context remain 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.

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

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

  • 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. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    FAO has continued to report International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) data for all its projects on a quarterly basis throughout 2018. As of September 2018, a total of 3937 projects are included in FAO reporting, of which 996 active at that date.

    2. 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
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    IATI reporting has been overly cumbersome due to the fact that certain aspects of the process have had to be carried out manually.

    Reported data did not provide information on food security and food safety related activities due to limitations in OECD purpose coding.

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

    FAO has made a proposal for improvement of OECD reporting of food security and safety, accepted by OECD in 2018.

    FAO is working on web-based tools integrated in existing workflows to streamline IATI data gathering.

    Keywords

    Transparency / IATI

Attachments

  • WHS Commitments Attachments
    Transformation - 3G | Disability