FAO.org

This policy guidance note is part of a series that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and partners are producing to support policy makers address the food security and nutrition situation in their country. Each note provides guidance on how to sharpen the focus of sector policies in order to achieve sustainable food security and nutrition outcomes. By supporting countries to formulate and adopt policies and programmes to eradicate hunger and attain food security, FAO contributes towards its Strategic Programme 1: help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.  Public procurement has been commonly used as a tool [...]

The resource guide is part of the follow-up to the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) that was held in November 2014 in Rome, Italy. It aims at guiding countries to translate the 60 recommended policy options and actions of the ICN2 Framework of Action into country-specific commitments for action. This process is done according to the national needs and conditions, and builds on existing policies, strategies, programmes, plans and investments in order to achieve the 10 commitments of the Rome Declaration on Nutrition.

This report provides an analysis of various dimensions of the resilience capacity of Mauritanian households. The results of the RIMA analysis (Resilience Index Measurement Analysis) provide evidence to demonstrate the factors that enable certain households to overcome shocks and other sources of stress better than others. The report discusses the results of the RIMA analysis according to households’ place of residence, livelihoods, the gender of the household head, and food security status, as well as the impact of shocks on the resilience capacity of households and subjective resilience capacity. The objective of the analysis is to inform the Mauritanian government [...]

Agriculture has traditionally been the backbone of Swaziland’s economy but has experienced severe decline. Its contribution to GDP has decreased gradually over the last two decades due to a number of factors, including recurring drought, chronic underinvestment and the impact of HIV and AIDS. Despite this, agriculture-based products account for around 75 percent of the country’s total export revenues. With key extension officers lacking the skills to disseminate nutrition and gender-sensitive agricultural technologies and practices, the project sought to strengthen national capacities through the establishment of Farmer Field Schools, with farmer representatives trained as facilitators in order to support on-the-ground [...]

Organic producers have new opportunities to supply their products to the markets as the demand for safe product is increasing in Asia and in the world. The high cost and paperwork associated with the third-party certification hamper smallholder farmers to benefit from this trend. At the same time, consumers are faced with difficulties to trust organic or safe products in the market. In response, a pilot project in Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Cambodia addressed the certification and marketing issues through the promoting of Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS). Through a training of trainers (ToT) 13 participants (46 percent women) from [...]

In Seychelles, a move of agricultural production from flat to hill areas is expected for the next years, bringing a risk of both a decrease in food production and degradation of the forests. A development of appropriate agroforestry systems, adapted to local land capacities and markets, is the most appropriate response to counter this trend, while providing a sustainable system of agricultural production based on soil conservation, ensuring food security, improving land use and environmental services, minimizing wildfire hazards and combating invasive species. Find more Project Highlights here.

In many developing and least-developed countries (LDCs), the transformation of the agriculture sector is key for improving domestic food security and nutrition and for promoting economic development. However, efforts to raise agricultural productivity and develop inclusive and competitive agricultural value chains are often hampered by market- and trade-related bottlenecks, while initiatives promoting agricultural commercialisation, diversification and trade are often curbed by bottlenecks at farm or post-harvest levels. In this context, FAO, in collaboration with the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) and European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), carried out a Multi-partner Programme Support Mechanism (FMM) Project on Trade related capacity development [...]

Migration from rural areas is significant, and policy-makers must seek to maximize its positive impacts on development. The movement of people out of agriculture and into other sectors with higher productivity – manufacturing and services, mostly located in urban areas – contributes to economic growth and higher incomes for migrants from rural areas. However, migration also has profound impacts on rural areas of origin, some positive and some negative. Hence policies should support productive capacity and livelihoods in rural areas as migrant labourers move away. It is also important to enhance the contribution of migrants to the development of rural [...]

This document summarizes the online discussion Youth employment in agriculture as a solid solution to ending hunger and poverty in Africa, which was held on the FAO Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum) from 16 July to 10 August 2018. The discussion was organized to gather views in advance of the 20-21 August regional conference “Youth Employment in Agriculture as a Solid Solution to Ending Hunger and Poverty in Africa: Engaging through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Entrepreneurship” in Kigali, Rwanda. The major thematic areas of the conference focused on youth and entrepreneurship, digital innovation, and [...]

After heavy and above-average rains fell in September 2015 in the Southern Province and Western Area, an estimated 22 000 people were affected and thousands of hectares of land were destroyed. The worst of the damage occurred in Bo, Bontheand Pujehundistricts. Because many households in Sierra Leone depend on agriculture for their food and income, the loss of crops and seeds devastated the food and nutrition security of farmers in these areas, who were already at the peak of the lean season. This project was implemented to immediately improve household food security while allowing farmers to restart agricultural production during [...]