United Nations

There are three UN agencies based in Rome dedicated primarily to food and agriculture.


Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

The main focus of FAO is to ensure that people have regular access to high-quality food in order to live healthy lives. Founded in 1945, its mandate is to improve nutrition, agricultural productivity, and the lives of rural populations and to contribute to the growth of the world economy. FAO’s activities include providing information and knowledge to aid development, sharing policy expertise to achieve hunger alleviation goals, and providing a forum for nations to meet to negotiate agreements and policy. FAO’s flagship program to boost food production in low-income, food-deficit countries is the Special Program for Food Security, which promotes tangible solutions to improve the yields and incomes of poor farming households.

• The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-2011, FAO, 2011
• Crop Calendar (A Crop Production information tool for Decision making), FAO 2010
• How to Feed the World in 2050, FAO, 2009
• The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2009: Economic Crises - Impacts and Lessons Learned, FAO, 2009
• The State of Agricultural Commodities Markets 2009: High Food Prices and the Food Crisis - Experiences and Lessons Learned, FAO, 2009
• The State of Food and Agriculture 2008: Biofuels - Prospects, Risks and Opportunities, FAO, 2008

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

The goal of IFAD is to empower the rural poor in developing countries to achieve higher incomes and improved food security. Established in 1977 to finance agricultural development projects for food production, IFAD’s mandate is to alleviate poverty and improve nutrition through lending. IFAD ensures the rural poor will have better access natural resources, improved technologies and production services, financial services, and competitive markets.

• 2011 Rural Poverty Report, IFAD, January 2011
• Sending Money Home to Africa: Remittance Markets, Enabling Environment and Prospects, IFAD, 2009
• Revised Rural Finance Policy, IFAD, 2009

United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)

The mission of WFP is food assistance to meet emergency needs and to support economic and social development. Established in 1961, its mandate is to end global hunger and poverty with the ultimate goal of eliminating the need for food aid itself. WFP operations aim to save lives in crises, to improve nutrition and quality of life for vulnerable people, and to enable development through building assets and promoting self-reliance in labor-intensive work programs. Under the Purchase for Progress initiative, WFP helps local economies by purchasing food through local procurement in order to guarantee farmers access to reliable markets and competitive prices.

• Climate Change and Hunger: Responding to the Challenge, WFP, December 2009
• WFP Annual Report 2009, WFP, 2009
• World Hunger Series: Hunger and Markets, WFP, 2009
• WFP Strategic Plan 2008-2011, WFP, 2008

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

In September 2000, building upon a decade of major United Nations conferences and summits, world leaders came together at United Nations Headquarters in New York to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets - with a deadline of 2015 - that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS to providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by the world’s countries and the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.

• MDG Gap Task Force Report 2009, United Nations, 2009
• The Millennium Development Goals Report 2009, United Nations, 2009

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