Forum global sur la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition (Forum FSN)

 The Asia Pacific Symposium (10-11 November 2017, Bangkok) links to the FAO and WHO International Symposium on Sustainable Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Improved Nutrition held in Rome in December 2016, and is one of four follow-up events focused on specific world regions. The aims are to enhance agriculture and food systems’ visibility, create policy and programme options, promote sustainable diets and build partnerships through taking stock of evidence on transformational change in food systems toward sustainability, and their link to positive health and nutrition outcomes.  The Symposium will also develop and strengthen information platforms on nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems for countries in the region so that they can share that knowledge amongst consumers, producers and other stakeholders. Major interventions for good nutrition governance and effective local level implementation will be identified and promoted. 

The Asia-Pacific region, home to most of the world’s undernourished people, needs urgent action to improve diets and reset its food systems which are critical to the delivery of healthy, nutritious foods, FAO said today. According to the findings of FAO’s 2017 Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition report, there is a pressing need to tackle malnutrition alongside further promotion of the consumption of healthier foods while curbing the growth in consumption of unhealthy foods.

This new publication presents the work of the FSN Forum, offering an overview of how Forum activities and its vast network of participants around the world help FAO to tackle the root causes of poverty and hunger and support countries, organizations and communities in their efforts to improve lives. 

FAO/GIEWS has released the latest issue of the Crop Prospects and Food Situation quarterly report that focuses on developments affecting the food situation of developing countries and Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries. The report also includes an overview of global cereal production prospects and a table highlighting countries that require external assistance for food, identifying the primary causes of the local food crises.

HIGHLIGHTS

Counties requiring external assistance for food: FAO estimates that 37 countries are in need of external assistance for food in the world. Persisting conflicts have continued to acutely affect agricultural production and food security conditions. Weather shocks, including floods, hurricanes and droughts, have compounded the fragile conditions in some of the conflict-affected countries and also resulted in production shortfalls, adversely impacting food availability and access in other countries.

Africa: Northern Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan continue to be affected by severe food insecurity, while drought in parts of East Africa has curbed agricultural outputs and sustained high food prices. Wetter conditions in Southern Africa resulted in production recoveries, leading to significantly reduced food insecure numbers, while severe localized floods in West Africa have affected larger numbers of people.

Asia: Despite severe localized floods and droughts in some countries, production in the Far East is forecast to increase in 2017. Conflicts continue to intensely impact agriculture and food security in Iraq, Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen. Elsewhere in the Near East, generally good weather boosted production.

Latin America and the Caribbean: In the Caribbean, the impact of hurricanes is expected to depress agricultural production for second season crops in the affected areas and adversely impact food security conditions. In South America, record cereal outputs are forecast in Argentina and Brazil in 2017.

Please download the full report here: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i7830e.pdf.

FAO invites those working in policy or research on agricultural trade and climate change to submit papers to be presented at the 2017 International Conference on Climate Change Agricultural Trade and Food Security.

The Conference will bring together policy makers, academics and practitioners to exchange ideas, research findings and experiences on the linkages between agricultural trade and climate change.

The outcomes of these consultations will contribute to FAO’s flagship report, The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (SOCO), which will examine the potentials of agricultural trade and trade policies to enhance food security and sustainable agricultural production in the context of a world confronting climate change impacts.

For more information on the call, please see: http://www.fao.org/3/a-bt390e.pdf.

More information on the conference is available here:

http://www.fao.org/economic/est/est-events-new/climatetrade/en/.

To register: http://www.fao.org/trade/registration-form/en/?related=1026667&list=1. 

Registration to the Conference closes on Friday, 20 October 2017.

FAO/GIEWS has released a special alert on drought affecting crops in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Highlights: 

• Prolonged dry weather conditions from April to late June in the main central and southern cereal-producing provinces raise serious concerns about the final production of the ongoing 2017 main cropping season.

• If rains do not improve soon, the 2017 cereal output may decrease significantly, further deteriorating the local food insecurity.

• Immediate interventions are needed to support the affected farmers and prevent negative coping strategies for the most vulnerable households.

The report can be accessed through the following link: 

http://www.fao.org/3/a-i7544e.pdf.

FAO/GIEWS has released a Special Alert on the drought in East Africa.

The highlights:

• Prevailing severe dry weather conditions, virtually since October 2016, have affected rangelands and crops in large parts of East Africa, causing a serious deterioration of food security conditions in the subregion.
• Major areas of concern are central and southern Somalia, southeastern Ethiopia, northern and eastern Kenya, northern United Republic of Tanzania, and northeastern and southwestern Uganda.
• Localized Fall armyworm infestations are likely to further affect yields in the affected areas.
• Soaring prices of cereals are limiting food access for large numbers of poor households.
• The purchasing power of pastoral households in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia is severely constrained by plunging prices of livestock and rising prices of cereals.
• Recurrent climatic shocks have undermined household resilience. Urgent support to agricultural livelihoods is critically needed.

The Special Alert can be accessed through the following link: 

http://www.fao.org/3/a-i7537e.pdf.