(4) Contribution/Contact information

FAO collaborates with business through field offices in 100 countries and its headquarters in Rome .FAO accepts donations from the private sector (individuals or business entities) through standard banking tools or via its website.FAO also works with a small number of companies who make significant contributions of in-kind goods or services.Typical in-kind contributions accepted by FAO are worth US$50,000 - US$1million.

Overview:  FAO’s collaboration with the private sector is aimed at support to the agriculture, food, forestry and fisheries sectors in developing countries. FAO works with the private sector in a variety of modalities.  These include initiatives taken on jointly with the private sector, funding received to conduct activities supporting the work of the organization, consultative mechanisms, market information systems developed jointly and for the benefit of private sector and various field projects.  Some current examples are listed below:

The AGORA (Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture) initiative provides free access to more than 400 key journals in food, nutrition, agriculture and related biological, environmental and social sciences to professionals in developing countries where resources are not available to purchase subscriptions.

The project brings together bilateral agencies, UN agencies, private foundations and international scientific publishing houses and is an excellent example of how the public and private sectors can collaborate to have a real impact on solving key development problems.

Founding publishers of AGORA are : Blackwell Publishing ; CABI Publishing ; Elsevier ; Kluwer Academic Publishers ; Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins; Nature Publishing Group ; Oxford University Press ; Springer Verlag ; and John Wiley and Sons.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO and WHO to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme. Private sector organizations participate in CODEX meetings as part of government delegations and often include consumer groups and industry representatives.

The private sector also may attend meetings as part of a Codex-approved International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) and may offer comments during committee meetings at the discretion of the Chairman.

The FAO Programme on Assistance to School Milk Promotion is partially supported through funds provided by Tetra Pak and De Laval and will continue through 2008. Activities financed through this programme aim to facilitate the exchange of information and experiences in implementing school milk programmes.  As a result, consumption of milk in schools is expected to increase providing important nutritional benefits as well as an increase in the demand for milk and milk products.

With funding from the Carrefour International Foundation, FAO published a Manual on "Good Practices for the Meat Industry". The manual aims to implement in a practical way the Codex Alimentarius Code of Practice on Meat Hygiene. The publication is intended to guide managers of abattoirs and the meat industry in a risk analysis approach;

In addition, FAO has projects funded through The UN Foundation (UNF): Examples of some key past and ongoing UNFIP projects implemented by different FAO Departments, include:

the “UN Atlas of Oceans”; the “Establishment of the Global Crop DiversityTrust Fund Governance Structure” (www.startwithaseed.org); the “Community-based Commercial  Enterprise Development  for the conservation of biodiversity at World Heritage Sites; the “Empowerment of Women in Irrigation and Water Resources of Improved Household, Food Security, Nutrition and Health the “Central African World Heritage Forest Initiative/CAWHI”