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This document contains the report of the first meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group (Part 6 Working Group) established by the Parties to the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, held in Oslo, Norway, from 1 to 2 June 2017. The Part 6 Working Group discussed the main requirements and priorities of developing States in the implementation of the Agreement and recommended that support should consider legal and policy aspects, institutional set-up and capacity, and operations and procedures. It recognized that assistance should be tailored to accommodate the specific needs of countries and regions, and highlighted the [...]

This book describes approaches taken by governments in forest tenure policy reform to improve forest conditions and enhance livelihoods. It addresses challenges against effective reform, including climate change impacts and limited access to rights.

The regional Symposium on Agroecology for Europe and Central Asia was held in Budapest from 23 to 25 November 2016, which was attended by over 180 participants from 41 countries in the Region. The Symposium participants formulated 37 recommendations to develop agroecology for sustainable food and agricultural systems in Europe and Central Asia. This report reflects the discussions among participants on the following five topics:  Agroecology: concepts, systems and practices Research, Innovation, knowledge sharing and agroecological movements  Agroecology and natural resources in a changing climate: water, land, biodiversity and territories  Agroecology and sustainable food systems  Public policies to develop agroecology and promote transition

Strong market interventions and regulations of agricultural products have been part of the import substitution strategy implemented by the previous government until 2015, when the new administration reversed it by opening the market. Throughout the review period (2007-2017), the country prioritized social spending through various programmes, all of which were sustained by the new administration.

During the period 2007-2016, the government’s main policies for the agricultural sector have focused on increasing domestic rice production, reforming the cotton sector and maintaining input subsidies programmes. With regards to consumer policies, the main forms of assistance include food distribution, food sales at subsidized prices, and ad hoc measures to stabilize food prices such as the closure of the border for food exports or the waiver of import duties on imported foods.

In recent years, government's investments in agriculture have focused on increasing land under irrigation, subsidizing inputs, strengthening the agricultural extension service and reforming agricultural sector institutions through the privatization of a number of parastatals. Although agriculture represents the largest contributor to Kenya's GDP, the allocation of public expenditure to the sector has remained below the five percent over the past decade.

Indonesia has charted impressive economic growth since the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. The national top priority is becoming self-sufficient in rice, maize, soybeans, sugar and beef. To achieve this, the Government is providing farmers with significant market price support, fertilizer subsidies and setting import restrictions. Social protection is being strenghtened through the consolidation of the RASKIN programme, the introduction of nutrition and cash transfer programmes and the substitution of fuel subsidies For more country policy briefs by FAPDA please see here.

FAO, in partnership with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, is developing an interactive learning tool to facilitate learning on the potential benefits and trade-offs in linking social protection, resilience and climate change policies at local, national and global level. The tool allows national stakeholders and policymakers to experience first-hand the challenges that smallholder farmers face when dealing with scarce availability of productive assets and deteriorating climate conditions. This will help participants be better equipped to solve complex problems related to social protection, climate change issues and resilience in an uncertain world. The tool capture the essence of real-life [...]

By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas. Should we thus be more concerned with urban development? On the contrary, we should still focus on rural development, as this will remain critical to ensuring food security and eliminating poverty. With the ongoing demographic change, however, successful rural development will need to heavily rely on strong linkages between rural and urban economies. See the complete series here.

As urban food markets have grown rapidly in recent decades, so too have rural–urban food supply chains. Urbanization and higher incomes are shifting dietary patterns away from staples and towards higher-value products (fish, meat, eggs, dairy products, fruits and vegetables, and more processed foods), thus driving transformations upstream in the food system. See the complete series here.