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In its 2020 communiqué, the International Advisory Council on Global Bioeconomy has urged to strengthen good practices and policies to advance the global bioeconomy.The transition from a fossil-based economy to a bioeconomy happens at three levels: technological, organizational and social. In particular, agri-food systems are key to achieve a shift to sustainable and circular production and consumption patterns, since they occupy the biggest share of the bioeconomy from an economic, value-added perspective as well as having potential for discovery and innovation.This Compendium outlines 250 sources of good practices and policies. It covers the entire continuum of economic sectors that have [...]

After more than five years of protracted conflict, Yemen continues to face an unprecedented humanitarian, social and economic crisis. Conflict, displacement and economic decline are placing immense pressure on essential basic services and the institutions that provide them. Humanitarian needs have sharply increased across all sectors since the escalation of the conflict in 2015, which has exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities, degraded community resilience and accelerated the collapse of public institutions. Due to the need for reliable and timely food security and nutrition information to inform decision-making at the national and governorate levels, FAO and the Yemeni Government, with support from the [...]

The arid and semi-arid areas (ASALs) of Kenya cover nearly 84 percent of the national land and thus present an enormous potential contribution to national agricultural production as well as basic food and income for farmers residing in these areas. About three in every ten Kenyan children aged below two years are stunted. According to the Kenya Demographic Health Survey conducted in 2014, Kitui county and West Pokot county had the highest stunting rates nationally at almost 46 percent. This is against a national average stunting rate of 26 percent.There have been multiple past projects in Kitui county that aimed [...]

Africa is not on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 targets to end hunger and ensure access by all people to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round and to end all forms of malnutrition. The number of hungry people on the continent has risen by 47.9 million since 2014 and now stands at 250.3 million, or nearly one-fifth of the population. The 2017, 2018 and 2019 editions of this report explain that this gradual deterioration of food security was due to conflict, weather extremes, and economic slowdowns and downturns, often overlapping. A continued worsening of [...]

FAO is actively supporting regional and country capacities to shape food systems that enable healthy diets. Developing appropriate food systems policies and actions entails improving governments' and non-State actors' capacities for carrying out the necessary actions. To achieve this goal, FAO has developed a Capacity Development Roadmap in support of the revised Vision and Strategy for FAO's Work in Nutrition (FAO's Nutrition Strategy). The Roadmap will steer the capacity development activities by addressing current gaps and leveraging opportunities.

Parliamentarians are agents of change, and their role is critical to ensure a world where all people are eating healthy diets from sustainable, inclusive, and resilient agri-food systems. Members of the Parliament hold a strategic position as they can shape policies and actions for improving food availability, accessibility, and affordability for all people, especially the most vulnerable, to ensure their food security and good nutrition for health and wellbeing. Objectives that are more important than ever in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic.This handbook is addressed to Parliamentarians to support them in adopting domestic legislation, approving budget allocations, and [...]

This paper presents a methodology for public expenditure review and analysis for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the agricultural sector. It outlines the basic methodological concepts, including the classification of public expenditures in the context of their links to climate change adaptation and mitigation. It also illustrates how such analysis can usefully contribute to policy decision making to better achieve the climate change adaptation and mitigation goals using the case study of Uganda. The proposed classification allows for analysing the level and the composition of public expenditures that influence adaptation capacity of the sector to climate change, and actions that [...]

The publication aims at presenting best practices and lessons learned from two programmes implemented in Kenya and in the United Republic of Tanzania which capitalized on FAO's experience and knowledge in inclusive food systems development, targeting both the policy and institutional level and the direct support to value chain actors (i.e. SMEs). The focus of the programme was twofold, covering both the policy level (through improved inter-sectoral coordination and capacity building of institutions) and the pilot of inclusive investments strategies by small and medium agro-industries to source from small-scale producers. Four food subsectors were selected, based on their nutrition relevance [...]

Measures adopted around the world to contain the COVID-19 outbreak helped curb the spread of the virus and lowered the pressure on health systems. However, they also affected the global trading system, and the supply and demand of agricultural and food products. In response to concerns over food security and food safety worldwide, many countries reacted immediately to apply policy measures aiming to limit potentially adverse impacts on domestic markets.Covering the first half of 2020, the report provides an overview of short-term changes in trade patterns and policy measures related to agricultural trade that countries adopted in response to the [...]

The 2020 compendium offers an overview of salient government policies and related private sector measures concerning global and national markets for oilcrops and derived products. Its purpose is to facilitate the work of policy makers, market experts, analysts and other interested stakeholders by providing a short, concise overview of policy developments relevant to the sector. Detailed news items are presented in tabular form (in English only), preceeded by a brief discussion of the key policy trends observed in the year under review.Le recueil de 2020 propose une vue d’ensemble des principales politiques publiques et mesures connexes prises par le secteur [...]