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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 [...]

Against the background of fast expanding trade and a surge in food import bills, which has come to characterise much of developments shaping global food markets in 2020/21, early forecasts for 2021/22 point to resilient food trade and a continuation of strong international prices amidst many supply and demand uncertainties.This report provides supply and demand forecasts for basic foodstuffs, fish and fishery products along with price analysis and policy information. The report’s special feature of this report puts recent trends in global food trade under the spotlight, with particular focus on how commodity flows have measured-up during the COVID-19 pandemic. [...]

Human population growth increases the demand for natural resources in many parts of the world. This has led to the degradation and fragmentation of wildlife habitats, with humans and livestock encroaching on natural habitats. Wildlife is increasingly competing with humans for limited natural resources resulting in an increase in human and wildlife conflicts (HWCs). These conflicts also contribute to the increased risk for emerging infectious disease transmission. FAO’s work on HWC is an integral part of the Wildlife and Protected Areas Management Programme, and it aims at contributing to the achievement of the SDG2 on Zero hunger and SDG15 on Life [...]

Soil pollution is invisible to the human eye, but it compromises the quality of the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe and puts human and environmental health at risk. Most contaminants originate from human activities such as industrial processes and mining, poor waste management, unsustainable farming practices, accidents ranging from small chemical spills to accidents at nuclear power plants, and the many effects of armed conflicts. Pollution knows no borders: contaminants are spread throughout terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and many are distributed globally by atmospheric transport. In addition, they are redistributed through the global [...]

Neither agriculture nor social protection alone can address all the constraints faced by poor rural households. Combined interventions are shown to have greater impacts than stand-alone interventions in assisting vulnerable populations to combat poverty and providing them with productive means to sustainably move out of poverty. The complementarity can also contribute to increasing the resilience of households in the face of external shocks, such as the one we are currently facing as a result of COVID-19.

This note provides an overview of available evidence on return migration to rural areas due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the related implications for migrant workers and their families and communities of origin, as well as government response measures that have been taken.The inclusion of returnees and consideration of their socio-economic needs in the COVID-19 response and recovery measures is essential, regardless of registration of residence, migratory or working status. The immediate vulnerabilities of rural returnees and their families need to be addressed, while also investing in medium-to-long-term socio-economic objectives, to allow those who want to stay in rural areas to [...]

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 [...]

This report consists of two main sections: 1) a situation analysis of Sustainable Development Goal 2 Target 2.1 (to end hunger and ensure access to food by all) and Target 2.2 (to end all forms of malnutrition) and analyses of the diets of children and of current food consumption patterns relative to dietary guidelines; and 2) a special look at the cost and affordability of healthy diets in Europe and Central Asia.The new estimates confirm that the prevalence of hunger at chronic or severe levels is relatively low in the ECA region. However, the prevalence of food insecurity at moderate [...]