A new Memorandum of Understanding between the ILO and FAO signed in September 2004, which supplements the Cooperation Agreement (1947) and subsequent agreements, updates the framework for cooperation between the two organizations in order to meet the challenges of globalization and the internationally agreed global development agenda, in particular the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and to enhance the effectiveness of the support provided by the two organizations to their members. The full text of MoU is available here.

The main thrusts of the FAO/ILO Memorandum are:

• to promote greater policy coherence between the economic, social and environmental dimensions of development policies at the global, regional and country levels;
• to strengthen synergies between ILO and FAO activities at country level in support of national development plans and programmes, including in the context of poverty reduction strategies, development assistance frameworks and common country assessments;
• to contribute to more coherent and comprehensive normative instruments developed by the two organizations, as well as technical assistance for their implementation.

The main areas of collaboration identified in the Memorandum include:

• follow-up to the major global conferences, in particular the World Summit for Social Development (1995), the World Food Summit (1996), the Millennium Summit (2000), the World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002), and the World Summit (2005), including support for attainment of their goals and targets which are of relevance to the two organizations;
• follow-up to the Report of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization (2004) as a major area of collaboration;
• promotion of sustainable agriculture and rural development as a key priority for hunger and poverty reduction, with particular attention to rural livelihood improvement, decent work and employment creation.

In practice, this involves:

• demand-driven consultations between technical units to translate the broad areas of collaboration identified into more specific and concrete joint action;
• consultations on flagship publications (e.g. the ILO’s World Employment Report and Employment Trends, and the FAO’s The State of Food and Agriculture);
• enhanced operational interaction at the national level, including
• coordinated country needs assessments;
• collaboration in support of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and the achievement of the MDGs;
• joint collaboration with relevant regional and subregional institutions formulating development policies;
• joint fund-raising activities for joint action;
• joint implementation of technical cooperation activities.