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This policy brief provides some key take aways from a comprehensive policy effectiveness analysis carried out by the FIRST Programme (an EU-FAO partnership) in Fiji. The thorough analysis shows that, while important and useful, multisectoral coordination is not enough to achieve sustainable agriculture and food systems: every sector needs to take action. Therefore, mainstreaming nutrition in agriculture and making it profitable as a first step towards achieving a healthier food environment. However, increasing availability is not enough: evidence is needed on the capacity of the Fijian food system to provide accessible diverse and nutritious foods for all. Accessibility to nutritious [...]

The analysis made of the effectiveness of national fishery and aquaculture policies and strategies in ECOWAS Member States and Mauritania has shown overall that their implementation faces with problems related to the low level of domestic funding allocated. This is compounded by their heavy dependence on external financing through TFP programmes and projects in which the objectives are not always aligned with those of national policies. Thus, the attractiveness of the sector will have to be improved by establishing a much more favourable environment for private sector investment in fisheries and aquaculture, given the substantial investment gaps highlighted by the [...]

Despite relatively high economic growth rates in many developing countries in the last two decades, income inequality has remained high and even increased. This has important policy implications as high-income inequality undercuts the benefits of economic growth in reducing food insecurity. This paper uses the 2014 Gallup World Poll (GWP) dataset of individual food insecurity based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) and employs a three-level linear probability model to assess the macro-economic effects of economic growth and income inequality on individual food insecurity. Results show that increases in the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita are concurrent with declines [...]

Intensifying water constraints threaten food security and nutrition. Thus, urgent action is needed to make water use in agriculture more sustainable and equitable. Irrigated agriculture remains by far the largest user of freshwater, but scarcity of freshwater is a growing problem owing to increasing demand and competition for freshwater resources. At the same time, rainfed agriculture is facing increasing precipitation variability driven by climate change. These trends will exacerbate disputes among water users and inequality in access to water, especially for small-scale farmers, the rural poor and other vulnerable populations.The State of Food and Agriculture 2020 presents new estimates on [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated serious threats to food security and nutrition and has greatly affected livelihoods and working conditions in agricultural value chains. This policy brief focuses on the role of responsible investment and responsible business conduct along agricultural value chains in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides policy recommendations for governments, investors, enterprises and civil society on how they can encourage responsible investment and responsible business conduct in agriculture in these challenging times. See the full list of policy briefs related to COVID-19.

With the COVID-19 in Jordan under control, the government of Jordan has managed the response proactively and to mitigate potential immediate impacts on the availability of food to the population. Food security among vulnerable Jordanian households has remained largely stable as yet with 15% of households showing a poor or borderline Food Consumption Score (FCS) in 2020 compared to 16% in 2018. Nevertheless the extent of the damage to key components of the food supply chain is still not completely quantified. Also, the pandemic still ongoing globally and in the region, Jordan will have to remain attentive to multiple risks that [...]

This document provides guidance on implementing the Food Insecurity Experience Scale for the purpose of monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on food security. Important considerations are covered such as survey design, method of data collection, translation and linguistic adaptation of the survey module, and preparation of the interview script, among others. Also available in Spanish. Find more COVID-19 related resources here.

CFS Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) Subscribe here!

One of the main pillars of food security is food supply, which refers to the availability of sufficient quantities of food of appropriate quality, supplied through domestic production or imports. In this paper, we use quantities of commercialized foods from the Supply and Utilization Accounts (SUA) compiled by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to analyze trends in food available for consumption based on by region and country income level group. Results show that, in general, food groups available for consumption differ across income-level country groups. There are nonetheless evident regional trends. Low-income and lower-middle-income countries have [...]

Distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) and smart contracts provide a unique opportunity to bring greater efficiency, transparency and traceability to the exchange of value and information in the agriculture sector. By utilising digital records, cryptography and the disintermediation of transaction processing and data storage, DLTs can improve both agricultural supply chains and rural development interventions in a number of ways. The technology has the potential to simplify and integrate agricultural supply chains, enhance food safety, facilitate access to trade finance and other types of agricultural financial services, improve market transparency, provide greater legal certainty to land-tenure systems and strengthen accountability for [...]