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This course addresses the linkages between trade and food security, which are highly complex and have been subject to intense debates at the national and global levels.

While countries in Europe and Central Asia have made significant progress reducing the prevalence of undernourishment, 14.3 million people still experience severe food insecurity. Malnutrition – in one or more of its three main forms – is present throughout the region. Demand for food is growing, consumption patterns are changing and urbanization is accelerating. The effects of climate change pose considerable challenges to agricultural production. The Sustainable Development Goals provide a fra mework for assessing and tackling these challenges and monitoring progress. Currently only a few countries have policy frameworks that address all four pillars of food security – availability, [...]

It is generally assumed that there are strong links between conflict, food security and peace. However, the precise underlying causes and channels that determine these links are often not well understood. More research and data are required to generate the evidence base that helps guide both national and international responses. The present study aims to add to this knowledge. It comes at a time of enhanced risk of famine and severe food crisis in several parts of the world, with conflict as the common denominator. It also comes at a time when the total number of hungry people in the [...]

FAO has prepared this Programme for Action to help support Sustainable Management of FAW in Africa. FAO works closely with its development and resource partners to maximize coordinated results and minimize duplications.  FAO proposes a five-year programme of action to help farmers, their organizations, their public institutions, national governments and development partners quickly respond the challenges of FAW infestation in smallholder farmers’ fields across Africa.

This note focuses on the topic of forced migration in protracted crises, presenting the challenges and some possible approaches to address root causes of forced migration and support displaced and host populations, illustrated by case studies from FAO’s interventions in such contexts. Improved food security, sustainable agricultural practices, access to and management of natural resources, employment and social protection benefits are key in supporting populations affected by displacement and to  ease the strain on host communities. Although forced migration poses many challenges, the long-lasting presence of forcibly displaced can create opportunities for local economies and bring skills, capital and connectivity [...]

This report aims to guide FAO – and other international actors – committed to providing developing countries with the support required for implementing their NDCs and ensuring future commitments are transparent, quantifiable, comparable, verifiable and ambitious. The agriculture sectors in Eastern Africa represent a pivotal opportunity for simultaneously leveraging the mitigation potential of the region, while enhancing adaptive capacity and food security outcomes through a transition to more sustainable agriculture and land use. However, change will only come about if supported by appropriate policies, institutional arrangements, capacity development and finance mechanisms. By highlighting the gaps in the coverage of mitigation [...]

This conceptual-level information note seeks to highlight the human rights aspects of the goals and targets relating to food security and small-scale fisheries (SSF), particularly from the perspective of the right to adequate food, and to demonstrate how this interrelationship plays out in the monitoring mechanisms established by relevant instruments. It is the product of a collaborative effort between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to support, using a human rightsbased approach, the integrated implementation and monitoring of those SDGs that are particularly [...]

In view of the existing tension and potential conflict between the host community and conflict-affected refugees in Turkana County, Kenya, an improvement in relations was urgently needed. It was noted that support could be given to disadvantaged hosts, linking them to market opportunities offered by the refugee situation, to the benefit of all concerned. The project sought to enable host communities to supply fresh produce (primarily vegetables and animal products) to the camp as part of the fresh food voucher component of the World Food Programme’s General Food Distribution and provide support to ensure that increased income from vouchers was [...]

Despite government efforts to reduce poverty and food insecurity, Ethiopia remains one of the world’s poorest countries, with around 25 million people living in extreme poverty. The country is exposed to a wide range of natural hazards, especially recurrent drought, such as that induced by El Niño in Amhara and Tigray Regions in 2014/15. The aim of the project was to provide emergency assistance in these regions for vulnerable smallholder households affected by the 2014/15 drought, many of whom  had consumed their seed reserves. It would do this by distributing cereal, potato and vegetable seed, and hand tools to assist [...]

Sustainable integrated food energy systems can significantly help to address the huge increase in demands for food, energy and water in the coming years. Therefore, there is need for better information and capacities on how to promote integrated food energy system (IFES) to inform decision-makers and secure policy support to that effect. The project aimed to assess the sustainability and replicability of integrated food-energy systems (IFES, particularly for countries such as Ghana and Mozambique, which face the challenge of producing enough food and energy in a non-competitive way. Find more Project Highlights here.