F.1: Excellence
Ensuring excellence Other Information:
The issue: A period of shrinking ODA flows and decreasing resources for multilateral organizations has been accompanied by
a growth in the number of institutions working in areas touching on FAO's mandate. The Organization thus faces the challenge
of retaining and further developing its role as a pre-eminent and authoritative source of information, advice and assistance
in the areas of its competence. FAO is in a unique position to build on its existing strengths, including its global mandate
and track record spanning 50 years, recognition of its leadership in a number of technical areas, the wide range of disciplines
it gathers under a single roof, its presence in many countries and its acknowledged neutrality and independence. At the same
time, the breadth of its mandate and the limitations on resources made available to it preclude assuming leadership in all
cases. Where FAO is not the "lead" player, it is all the more important that its activities be planned in the light of others'
work so as to minimize overlap and promote synergy, and that partnerships and alliances, based on clear divisions of labour,
be strengthened. It is, however, essential to identify certain areas in which FAO expects to be able to maintain technical
leadership and ensure the required action to further enhance its capacity for excellence in those areas. Among the criteria
suggested for choosing such areas are that they have transboundary implications and the potential for agreements to support
international action, that there is a clear and growing demand for work on them and that FAO has a comparative advantage in
dealing with them, owing to its unique character and strengths. Action to strengthen work in these areas would also involve
partnerships with others, but the focus would be on preserving and enhancing the status of the Organization as the recognized
source of authoritative information and advice to Members, the international community and the public at large. The strategy:
The strategy is to: a) develop operational criteria for identification and selection of areas of excellence and, on the basis
of them, select an appropriate number of key areas where FAO has good prospects for either reaching or maintaining this status;
b) address the question in all its dimensions (the information base and "institutional memory", normative and policy aspects,
practical action); c) put in place the necessary measures for human resource development (including accelerated programmes
of technical staff development) and for quality control of outputs; and d) ensure monitoring of progress and, as resources
permit, build in a component of "organizational learning" to guarantee continuous review and adjustment in the light of results.
Indicator(s):
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