Over 200 civil society delegates and 60 government representatives from across the globe passionately marked the International Mountain Day at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) Headquarters in Rome (Italy) with a three-day 5th Global Meeting of the Mountain Partnership (MP). The Mountain Partnership was jointly founded by the FAO, UN Environment, and the governments of Italy and Switzerland in 2002 in follow up of the International Year of Mountains (2002) scope and mandate, and to vigorously continue with the Sustainable Mountain Development agenda, as set out in the UN General Assembly Resolution 53/24. Sustainable Mountain Development is the subject of Chapter 13 of Agenda 21 and the International Year of Mountains (IYM) 2002 was built on it. The Chapter 13 notes that mountains are an important source of water, energy, biological diversity, and other key resources such as minerals, forest products and agricultural products, and of recreation. This chapter is dedicated to protecting mountain ecosystems and improving the well-being of mountain people. The International Year of Mountains acted as a catalyst for long-term, effective action to implement chapter 13. It achieved much by raising awareness of the importance of mountains to life and the need to improve mountain environments and the livelihoods of mountain people; supported the establishment of 78 national committees for country-level action; and strengthened partnerships with stakeholders in mountain issues, which culminated in the launch of the Mountain Partnership (MP) at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002. The 15 years of Mountain Partnership (MP) is a long journey of consolidated vision to translate and mainstream sustainable mountain development through variety of interventions. The FAO Forestry wing at the Headquarters in Rome has played well-knitted role in creating hype for the importance of mountains not only for the mountain habitats and ecosystems and communities living there, but also mountains’ role for the living and livelihood of the people in plains, deserts and other terrain. Thomas Hofer, the Coordinator of the Mountain Partnership Secretariat at FAO Headquarters, has been very instrumental over the years to build up a system having synergy of ownership from governments, International Non-governmental Organisation (INGOs), Inter-governmental Organisations (IGOs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the Community-based Organisations (CBOs) from different parts of the world. All the synergy of ownership was well represented at the 5th Global Meeting of the Mountain Partnership that was kicked off with genuinely a high-level panel on the International Mountain Day, a day turned to be the celebrative occasion for the 15 years of achievements and global unity for Sustainable Mountain Development. Presence of Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General; a statement on behalf of Mario Giro, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Italy; Andrea Olivero, Vice Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policy, Italy; Dominique Kohli, Assistant Director-General, Federal Office for Agriculture, Switzerland; and Tim Christophersen, Coordinator of Freshwater, Land and Climate Branch, UN Environment; and remarks by the Mountain Partnership ambassadors His Holiness Drikung Kyabgön Chetsang; Arjun Gupta, founder of the TeleSoft Partners; and Jake Norton, founder, Mountain World Productions; and Andrew Taber, Chair, Mountain Partnership Steering Committee. Another significant part of the 5th Global Meeting of the Mountain Partnership was the launch of the ‘Framework for Action’, moderated by Dominique Kohli, Assistant Director-General, Federal Office for Agriculture, Switzerland, while the keynote speaker were Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General, World Meteorology Organisation (WMO), and Grammenos Mastrojeni, Assistant Director-General and Coordinator for the Environment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy. The ‘Framework for Action’ was also endorsed by different countries including Pakistan with their specific statements. The 15 years of Mountain Partnership is a long journey of consolidated vision to translate and mainstream sustainable mountain development through variety of interventions It was indeed a great occasion where all types of voices have the exposure to all stakeholders. Frank and open remarks, deep discussions, translating science into action agenda, planning for more vigorous engagement of media in disseminating the local voices to the centres of planning and resources, and genuinely celebrating global unity for the mountains were the hallmark of the 5th Global Meeting of the Mountain Partnership. The collective vision and framework for action would certainly boost mainstreaming of mountains in to overall global development agenda in the context of natural habitats and resource management, climate change and conservation of ecosystems and to taking steps to reduce glacial melt, and so on. To get best out of the investment made so far to develop the common platform for the mountains what needed at this moment is to elaborate the national secretariats of the Mountain Partnership. This task seems to be next to impossible when the FAO Country Offices in developing countries such as of South Asia and particularly in Pakistan remains in deep slumber, indifferent and ignorant to the vision that FAO Rome develops and follows for the sustainable mountain development. I clearly see two extremes. Quite proactive and dynamic FAO Rome in accumulating resources and partners for the common vision, strategies and action agenda to pursue for the love, sustainability and mainstreaming of mountains. The other extreme is FAO Country Offices in least developed and developing countries that remain absent while other UN agencies especially UNDP and their partners take lead on every action agenda. A lot of hopes are pinned on Minà Dowlatchahi, an Italian by nationality, who took charge of the new FAO Representative (FAOR) in Pakistan on May 8th, 2017 though she has yet to be seen differently. Unfortunately she has to deal and work with extremely lethargic bureaucracy who could hardly move and push forward the framework for action though Pakistan needs more proactive and equitable approaches, not only to the sustainable mountain development that is very close to my heart and soul, but also to the larger framework and scope of schemes the FAO Pakistan is mandated to. I firmly believe that Ms Dowlatchahi would follow the footprints of Rome, and the MP framework for action to come up to the expectations of the communities and the global partners, and to show up the traditional and conventional Italian love for the mountains. The writer is an Islamabad-based policy advocacy, strategic communication and outreach expert. He can be reached at devcom.pakistan@gmail.com. He tweets @EmmayeSyed Published in Daily Times, December 19th 2017.