FAO's rural youth programming is carried out through field projects, with individual countries and/or several countries together on a regional basis; and through programmed activities which are part of a six-year Medium Term Plan. To better understand the nature of FAO's work, the terms "operational" and "normative" are often used to describe how projects and activities are carried out and their intended outcomes. Rarely do projects and activities exist in the pure form of being exclusively operation or exclusively normative; they are often a blend of the two. Usually projects and activities are referred to as "tending to be more operational" or "tending to be more normative."
Many field projects are considered primarily operational, especially those providing straight forward technical assistance, involving already tested methods and technology. On the other hand, work under the Medium Term Plan is considered mostly normative. Normative work involves the design and testing of innovative methodologies; carrying out research; building databases; and establishing norms and standards. In addition, normative work includes getting the technical information out to end users, in our case, rural youth professionals, volunteer leaders and young people themselves. This can be accomplished through training, newsletters, electronic media, written publications and other documents, such as guides, handbooks, training modules and curriculum materials. Most of the rural youth development field projects include major normative components.