How the FAO field programme is funded

The FAO field programme is funded through two main sources of funds:

• the regular programme (i.e. the Organization's core budget, proceeding from assessed contributions from its member countries);
• extrabudgetary resources received from multilateral and bilateral donors.

Since 2000, FAO has annually about 1500 to 2000 field projects in operation with an overall annual delivery of US$ 350 to 400 million. About ten to twenty percent of these are funded by the Regular Programme through the FAO Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) and the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS). The remainder is funded from extra-budgetary resources, mainly through the Government Cooperative Programme (GCP), Unilateral Trust Fund (UTF) and Trust Funds for emergency assistance.

Types of extrabudgetary funding at FAO

Extra-budgetary funding is divided into two groups:

• Earmarked funding which is provided on the basis of detailed project agreements concluded with donors and recipient countries;
• Programme approach funding which is provided on the basis of relatively flexible strategic partnership agreements.

Although most of the extra-budgetary support for FAO's work still falls into the first category, programme approach funding is increasingly important.

FAO's Field Programme Development service (TCAP)

FAO's Field Programme Development service (TCAP)coordinates FAO's corporate effort in mobilizing resources for its member countries by acting both as a catalyst and a facilitator in partnerships with developing countries, donor governments and FAO's technical departments. The service assists donors in identifying emerging opportunities that reflect their Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) policies and sectoral and geographic priorities. Its areas of work are:

• mobilizing and managing extra-budgetary resources (trust funds) received from bilateral and multilateral donors;
• donor liaison and programming services;
• information dissemination on donor priorities, policies and opportunities;
• advisory support to resource mobilization activities by headquarters, regional, subregional and country offices.

TCAP also plays an important role in the development of new funding modalities in accordance with donors' needs for greater harmonization and alignment as well as demands by developing countries that they are owners of their own development process.