FAO.org

Nearly three years ago, world leaders agreed to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the central framework for guiding development policies throughout the world. This edition of The State of the World’s Forests is aimed at enhancing our understanding of how forests and their sustainable management contribute to achieving several of the SDGs. Time is running out for the world’s forests: we need to work across sectors, bring stakeholders together, and take urgent action. The State of the World’s Forests 2018 identifies actions that can be taken to increase the contributions of forests and trees that are [...]

The report assesses the occurrence and impacts of drought, the current policies underlying drought management as well as the mitigation measures and responses adopted in the Near East and North Africa region, with a focus on the Agriculture Sector. It is the third of a series of similar studies carried out in different regions and countries of the world, with the objective of shedding light on drought effects, sensitizing policy-makers for the much needed paradigm shift to pro-active drought management planning and providing guidance for the development of such policies.  The studies are carried out by FAO, in collaboration with the Water for Food Institute, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA, as a direct [...]

The Agricultural Outlook 2018-2027 is a collaborative effort of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. It brings together the commodity, policy and country expertise of both organisations and input from collaborating member countries to provide an annual assessment of prospects for the coming decade of national, regional and global agricultural commodity markets. This year’s edition contains a special chapter on the prospects and challenges of agriculture and fisheries in the Middle East and North Africa that reviews the prospects and challenges facing the agricultural sector in the Middle East [...]

This discussion aims to gather the approaches and strategies used in SIDS to adapt to climate change, while building resilience of the most poor and vulnerable. Particularly, its purpose is:   to learn how SIDS are reducing the exposure of the poor and most vulnerable people to climate change and climate related events; to learn about pathways, tools and challenges, including recommendations for effectively building adaptive capacity to eradicate poverty and achieving food security and nutrition within the context of climate change.  The discussion focuses on the following questions: Can you share examples of actions that are being undertaken to reduce poverty, food insecurity and nutrition [...]

This discussion is an opportunity to systematically identify practices that have demonstrated their effectiveness in supporting the livelihoods of the communities and to classify them in such a way that they can be upscaled or replicated elsewhere. This is especially crucial for areas with similar agro-ecological characteristics. It is expected that some of these practices will then support projects aimed at addressing water scarcity in agriculture, with an objective roadmap comprising recommended practices/ technologies and the required supporting policies, as relevant. The purpose of this discussion is thus to call for participants’ contributions to the following questions. 1. Sustainability and replicability of [...]

The following recommendations have been elaborated building upon the main findings of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of CFS (HLPE) report on Sustainable Forestry for Food Security and Nutrition. They aim to strengthen the contributions of sustainable management of forests and trees to the achievement of food security and nutrition and contribute to the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security in the overall context of achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, recognizing the essential role of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food [...]

Many countries in the region have seen positive changes in agricultural development in recent years associated with countries’ reforms during the transition period after the Soviet Union collapse, as well as due to support from international organizations. This report overviews eighteen countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The report examines agriculture sectors and food systems, relevant programmes, it reveals the status of agro-processing sector and value chain development activities, and it covers food loss and waste. In the final analysis it was concluded, that more research and data collection are needed to understand the extent of food loss and waste at regional and national levels. It [...]

Trade Policy Brief No. 30 Certified areas and market share of products compliant with Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSSs) are growing rapidly. VSSs can deliver positive impacts, but also present challenges for small-scale producers. There has been no formal discussions in the WTO on the VSSs, even though calls for impact assessments on standards (public and private) have been made frequently. See the complete series: Trade Policy Briefs

The endorsement of the National School Feeding Programme (Projecto de Alimentação Escolar—PRONAE) by the Mozambican Council of Ministers in 2013 represented a key stage in the institutionalization of school feeding and local food purchases in the country’s education system. This publication presents analysis on the divide between policy change and effective implementation. An FAO project, the Purchase from Africans for Africa (PAA Africa), is assessed regarding its demonstrative effect and contributions to enlarge the knowledge basis for translating policy change in effective purchases of food from smallholders for a diversified food basket at schools. The need for a regulatory framework [...]

Good institutions are a fundamental pre-requisite to successfully achieve structural transformation in growing developing countries (UNECA, 2016). Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing a rapid growth but a weak and slow structural transformation process, which is mainly characterized by the reallocation of labour from agriculture to low skilled services. The focus of this paper is to explore how political and economic institutions affect structural transformation in a panel of 11 sub-Saharan African countries. Our empirical analysis reveals a positive and statistically significant effect of quality of institutions and economic freedom measures on structural transformation between sectors, which translates into movement out of agriculture. Better institutions appear to not improve productivity [...]