On 15-22 June,FAO Member nations unanimously adopted the Policy on Gender Equality as presented by FAO during its Ministerial Conference held in Rome. The Conference, the supreme governing body of FAO, was attended by Maris Gavino, WOCAN Liaison in Rome. The member nations also welcomed the organization’s ambition to become a model UN agency on gender equality. The organization pledged to fully implement the UN System-wide Action Plan (SWAP) on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. FAO moved from treating gender as a dedicated strategic objective to a cross-cutting theme that would however require vigilance and funding. Maris, in her intervention, during the side event on how to implement the renewed strategy in relation to FAO governance, suggested to extend the Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) of CFS to the other technical committees of FAO, such as the Committee on Agriculture, the Committee on Fisheries and the Committee on Forestry.
