FAO country offices may organize retreats with the staff to, inter alia, identify the areas of strengths and weaknesses, and to improve the overall performance and productivity of the office. However, please note that any effort should be made to contain the cost, in terms of both money and time, associated with these activities. Whenever possible, retreats should be arranged in FAO or UN premises at no cost, or very limited cost, to the Organization.

In this connection, the following guidelines are established to assist in the organization/clearance of country office retreats:

a.    The request for organizing a retreat should be submitted to the Regional Office four weeks in advance of the proposed retreat for approval by the ADG/Regional Representative.

b.    The request should be accompanied with the following information: 

• Objectives for the retreat/outputs to be accomplished
• Date/duration (not in excess of 2 working days) and venue
• Number of participants
• Work Programme of the retreat
• Methodology/facilitation arrangements
• Funding/cost sharing arrangements with breakdown of cost elements
• Proposed arrangements for covering FAO country offices' activities during the retreat

c.    The frequency of the retreats should be restricted to a maximum of one in two years.

d.    Adequate coverage of the office should be ensured so as to curtail any functional disruption.

e.    Upon completion of the retreat a short report should be forwarded to the ADG/Regional Representative. This report should include a summary of the recommendations and the expected impact during the year ahead.

f.    The Regional Office may not be in a position to allocate additional resources for this purpose. These should therefore be covered within the framework of the annual allotment of the office.  Participation of non-FAOR personnel and FAO project personnel, if envisaged, must be charged to the corresponding project budget entity and the respective sponsoring agency.