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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warn that acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 19 countries or situations – called hunger hotspots – during the outlook period from October 2022 to January 2023.

The COVID-19 crisis is exacerbating food insecurity and malnutrition in the Pacific region as measures to halt the spread of the virus have had unintended impacts on people’s lives, such as rising unemployment and poverty. Moreover, lockdowns and mobility restrictions cause disruptions in trade within and between States, reducing the availability and accessibility of adequate food, and threatening the sustainability of agrifood systems.Urgent steps are needed to address food insecurity for the poorest and most marginalized. Measures aimed at providing immediate support to satisfy people’s dietary needs should be put in place, including the provision of food and nutrition assistance.See [...]

Bioeconomy is the production, utilization, conservation, and regeneration of biological resources, including related knowledge, science, technology, and innovation, to provide sustainable solutions (information, products, processes and services) within and across all economic sectors and enable a transformation to a sustainable economy. The promotion of a bioeconomy has been placed on the political agenda of more than fifty countries. Its cross-cutting nature offers a unique opportunity to comprehensively address interconnected societal challenges such as food and nutrition security, fossil-resource dependence, natural resource scarcity and climate change, while achieving sustainable economic development.However, bioeconomy activities are not necessarily sustainable, as the development of [...]

Evaluation can bring a lot of value to learning and forging solutions as part of global efforts to address climate change. The dialogue discussed shifts in evaluation methods and practices, and explored new ways of working that can enable evaluators to enter into the climate change debate and prove the worth of evaluation.Key messages:     Evaluation can play a key role in climate change negotiations     Evaluation is the solution to impact washing: climate promises must be assessed for their true impact     To save the planet, decision makers need to draw on the best evidence     Common standards must be set to measure [...]

Seven years into the 2030 Agenda, there is an urgent need to understand where the world stands in eliminating hunger and food insecurity, as well as in ensuring sustainable agriculture. FAO's new report, “Tracking progress on food and agriculture-related SDG indicators”, offers analysis and trends on indicators across eight SDGs (1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 12, 14 and 15), highlighting areas of progress and areas where further effort is needed.Available in digital format, this year’s edition also discusses selected indicators for which FAO is a contributing agency and/or have key implications for food and agriculture across these Goals. These additional [...]

Food waste management and circular economy can be levers for sustainable food systems: food security in the Mediterranean region is threatened by natural resource scarcity, food import dependency, and current trade market instability to global crises. A circular economy approach to food waste would enableto recognize and maintain the value and utility of food products, nutrients and resources for as long as possible, minimizing resource use and upcycling food waste and by-products

La evidencia muestra que cuando una fuerte voluntad política se traduce en leyes, políticas públicas y programas, los indicadores de seguridad alimentaria y nutrición tienden a mejorar significativamente. Los parlamentarios desempeñan un papel fundamental en la promoción y aprobación de leyes y políticas para erradicar el hambre y la malnutrición, pero, sobre todo, para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional.A pesar de transitar por tiempos tan difíciles como los que plantea la pandemia por COVID-19, los parlamentarios han reiterado su compromiso de aprender y compartir sus experiencias, fortaleciendo los lazos de colaboración entre los países y las regiones, dando así [...]

This publication outlines key features of South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) and how FAO has applied SSTC to the delivery of its mission. The case studies presented provide a window on how SSTC has contributed to alleviating hunger and malnutrition in countries across the global South and has helped build resilience in the face of climate change and other development challenges. The lessons learned from these experiences are feeding into the new FAO SSTC Guidelines for Action (2022–2025) and will guide FAO's future results-based SSTC programmes.

This report presents the results of assessments based on the food insecurity experience scale (FIES), data collected by FAO in twenty least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) between November 2021 and February 2022. For nine of the countries (including eight SIDS), it was the first time FIES data had been collected. The surveys described in the report were conducted to provide accurate and timely food insecurity assessments of the 20 countries for which food security data are scarce. The detailed results, presented at the subnational level, can support country-level decision-making and will [...]

This report addresses the role of forest products in replacing fossil-based and GHG-intensive products. The overarching objective is to provide recommendations to strengthen the contribution of substitution by forest products to sustainable development. To that end, this report firstly provides an overview of the understanding of the bioeconomy and the role of forest products across the world. Secondly, we present examples of conventional and innovative forest products and describe their role in the bioeconomy. Thirdly, we present a review of the quantitative and qualitative understanding of the environmental impacts and benefits of substituting fossil fuel-based or -intensive products with forest-based products, and of [...]