Here please find a list of key resources featuring AP-in-FAO analysis and positions on key issues related to staff welfare.
Also be sure to check out our 2023 Annual Report & 2024 Policy and Programme Statement
Key resources & position statements
Key resources & position statements
Key resources & position statements
Flexible working arrangements (FWA), including teleworking (TW), have become part of the modern workplace and offers a powerful tool to increase productivity and to balance professional and personal lives. TW promotes the effective and efficient delivery of the FAO’s work programme as it reduces organizational costs, enhances business continuity, and promotes gender equity, diversity, and inclusivity. FW and TW can also help the Organization in meeting environmental goals. Organizations that fail to implement FWA risk losing talent to institutions that offer their employees more flexibility and a better work-life balance.
However, FAO's current position on TW diverges from that of other UN agencies and the global trend, where partners widely embrace the benefits of FWA.
Working together via ad hoc working group, the Association of Professionals (AP-in-FAO) and the Union of General Service Staff (UGSS) on TW at FAO in May 2023 published a position paper on Teleworking arrangements at FAO. The paper is based on an analysis of the current trends in the UN System and other international organizations, as well as a significant and expanding body of feedback from FAO’s employees and a broad range of academic studies and experience.
The evidence presented in the paper reveals three major findings:
Based on our analysis, the Staff Representative Bodies (SRBs) strongly advocate for:
FW & TW: Key resources & position statements
AP-in-FAO recognizes that gender definitions are evolving, and that while some challenges span genders, others are unique to specific gender communities. While we believe that it is important to maintain an intentional focus on the systemic and cultural challenges that women have traditionally faced in the workplace and within their careers, we recognize that people of other gender identities also experience challenges. We also appreciate that issues related to sexual orientation can play into gender inequity dynamics.
We are committed to evolving our understanding and approach on this issue. This is why, in addition to our work supporting equity and equality for women within FAO, in 2023 Annual Report & 2024 Policy and Programme Statement we outlined the importance of gender equality, diversity, and inclusion.
NB: This issues section, updated in April 2024, currently focuses on equity issues as relates to women in FAO. Its content will evolve as the Association's work on these topics evolves.
Equity issues affecting women in FAO
FAO has stated that it seeks to achieve gender parity at the professional level by 2022, and for the most senior positions by 2024. However, while the share of women in the professional and higher categories has increased from 32 percent in 2010 to 45 percent at the end of 2022, progress towards gender parity within and across the Organization is still far from sufficient. This is particularly the case with respect to representation at higher grades. While women represent the majority of staff in grades P1 to P3, they are dramatically under-represented from grades P4 and upwards – 39 percent of employees at P4 level are female, and just 28 percent are at D2 (HR report 2022).
Moreover, while parity in the overall gender balance among all employees has been achieved at FAO headquarters – with 53 percent of employees being females – in decentralized offices women are severely underrepresented (just 31 percent).
The causes of this imbalance are multiple and varied, and include issues relating to unconscious biases in recruitment and hiring, as well as safety and security, ethical behaviour and misconduct, and the issue of work/life balance, which can all affect women staff in particular.
Given this context, AP-in-FAO has issued several recommendations to FAO management to accelerate progress towards gender parity at FAO. These include:
The AP-in-FAO working group on gender matters will continue to monitor equity issues affecting women within the Organization. If you are interested in joining, please contact [email protected]
Gender definitions
Gender refers to the social construct which is built through cultural, political and social practices and which defines the roles of women, girls, men and boys. Gender roles are therefore taught, learned, and absorbed and vary between and within cultures.
Gender, like age and sexual orientation, determines the power that individuals have and their ability to access and control resources. Gender equity thus refers to women, girls, men and boys equally enjoying rights, goods, opportunities, resources and protections, and their different needs and priorities being addressed appropriately.
As part of AP-in-FAO’s new “Equality+” workstream, we aspire to convene a working group to articulate our understanding and approach to issues of gender and sexuality that extend beyond traditional female gender identities.
For more on this, see UN Women's Gender Equality Glossary.
Key resources
FAO is a global workforce, but not every FAO workplace or duty station is the same: conditions, services, contexts, and even rules and processes vary across settings.
AP-in-FAO is firmly committed to supporting and advocating on behalf of professional staff in every duty station, and we are dedicated to working for consistent and equal treatment of all employees, no matter where they are stationed.
We believe that FAO management must step up efforts to ensure that rules and entitlements are applied equally throughout the Organization – such as those relating to teleworking, mobility opportunities, health care access, and the right to official staff representation.
At the same time, the Associations recognizes the need for measures and policies that address specific needs or challenges faced by colleagues in decentralized offices, and appreciate that those of us stationed in Headquarters have access to resources and services that other colleagues do not.
AP-in-FAO in the regions
AP-in-FAO has an electoral group in each world region, each of which elects a representative who participates on their behalf in the Association’s Representative Council. Our Executive Secretariat also includes a Field Secretary, Friederike Mayen (RNE) and Deputy Field Secretary, Pieter van Lierop (RLC), whose roles are to ensure that the concerns and views of staff in duty stations are heard and acted upon, as well as reflected in our engagement with FAO management.
Field matters are a standing agenda item in the Executive Secretariat’s weekly meetings. We also have a dedicated Standing Committee (Standing Committee III – Field Matters), which focuses exclusively on issues of importance to colleagues in decentralized offices.
Working with the Representative Council, the Field Secretary, Deputy Field Secretary and other AP-in-FAO Standing Committees, the Field Committee defends and supports the interests of Association members stationed in duty stations. Prioritising issues relating to security, it also provides assistance and guidance on personal issues related to administrative, managerial, entitlements and related matters. We encourage all Members based in field duty stations to join and bring their experience and perspectives to the table.
Most Association meetings are hybrid to allow members in any location to participate, and we make a concerted effort to schedule meetings and events at times that permit participation across time zones.
We are committed to supporting members in the field
Although the Association has always worked to protect and advance the interests of field staff, we have reaffirmed this commitment in our latest programme of work.
The Association also remains committed to addressing issues related to staff mobility. Since the suspension of the mobility program, we have continued to liaise with management to find solutions for several colleagues who have been negatively impacted by the previous policy for family- or work-related reasons.
With many colleagues in field stations lacking adequate opportunity to rotate to other stations or headquarters, AP-in-FAO recognizes that there is still interest in the global workforce in a reasonable and well-articulated mobility program. We have communicated staff interest in a voluntary geographical rotation scheme that would support professional development, however to date, management has indicated that this is not under consideration. Nevertheless, we stand by our belief that a positive and voluntary mobility policy would benefit staff.
Key resources
FAO calculates rental subsidy for its field staff differently than other UN agencies and the amount paid by FAO is often lower than the amounts received by colleagues in other UN agencies in the same location.
However, it should be the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) that determines salaries, allowances and benefits of the United Nations common system, not individual agencies.
This document presented to the FAO conference in June 2015 (C 2015/3 Information Note 3: Reducing staff costs – ICSC review of staff compensation package) spells out very clearly how staff benefits and entitlements for organizations of the United Nations system are determined (page 1 and 2n and see in particular articles 10 and 11).
That same FAO Council document contains a table (page 5) which clearly indicates that responsibility for the rental entitlement subsidy, including determining conditions and amounts, lies with the ICSC – not individual agencies.
The document clearly states that the FAO Director-General “must apply ICSC conditions. Authority relates to defining reasonable accommodation e.g., linking payment to grade or to family size and establishing the maximum reasonable rent ceilings for Rome and other locations”.
However, FAO’s practice as regards rental subsidy in the field remains contradictory to its own documents submitted to Council.
How the ICSC determines rental subsidy
The method the ICSC uses to establish rental subsidies is described in the booklet United Nations common system of salaries, allowances and benefits (February 2022) which is intended to be a source of general reference for Member States, organizations and other users.
As regards rental subsidy, the ICSC booklet states:
“Rental subsidies: A subsidy may be paid when a staff member's rent exceeds a so-called rental threshold (percentage of his/her net remuneration). At field duty stations, the subsidy is 80 per cent of the excess of the staff member's actual rent over the rental threshold, in most cases up to a certain limit. […]. Normally, subsidies do not exceed 40 per cent of the rent; however, in a few field duty stations where residential rents are excessively high, this limit may be waived.
Rental subsidy applications submitted by the staff member are reviewed to ensure that the accommodation is of a reasonable standard in relation to established criteria. If the dwelling is larger or of a better quality than the norm for the duty station, the subsidy is calculated using the norm.”
FAO’s approach to rental subsidy
FAO’s method for calculating rental subsidy for duty field states is found in Article 9 of Manual Section 308 (Appendix H) and it deviates from the ICSC method described above. The manual section compares two values:
Of the two figures, the highest will be chosen as the allocated rental subsidy.
FAO staff receive unequal treatment
There is a clear difference between the ICSC method that is used by the UN common system and FAO’s Manual Section 308. The ICSC establishes a threshold and a certain limit (the reasonable maximum rent), while FAO makes its calculation in a rather opaque and subjective way using an unstandardized and variable series of metrics and indicators.
The bottom line is that this creates discrepancies in parity between FAO staff and the staff of other UN Organizations in the same location. Or to put it more bluntly, FAO is achieving savings by skimping on the benefits it provides to its staff in field locations – those colleagues who deserve more, rather than less, support from the Organization.
Key resources
AP-in-FAO position statements
Key resources & position statements
Watch this space for updates on priority issues that AP-in-FAO is working on and links to related news and resources for each issue.