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Small-scale fisheries communities in coastal areas or close to freshwater bodies are often highly vulnerable to a range of hazards (climate change, etc.) beyond their control. Frequent social, economic and political marginalization makes small-scale fisheries communities particularly susceptible to being affected by protracted crises. Two international instruments provide guidance on how to better address these issues: the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable SmallScale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) and the The Committee on World Food Security Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (CFS-FFA). The brief gives and overview [...]

The CFS Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (CFS-RAI Principles) promote investments that contribute to food security and nutrition. They are relevant for all types of investments including productive assets, but also for investments in human capital or intangible capital. Thus, they provide a different approach to the concept of investment; one that is closer to the concept of integral human development. Similarly, the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) go beyond fisheries and also address socio-economic issues of relevance to securing sustainable small-scale fisheries. This [...]

The Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) are the first international instrument dedicated entirely to the small-scale fisheries sector. While the implementation of the SSF Guidelines will require legal and regulatory adjustments beyond national fisheries legislation to ensure political and legislative coherence and fully reflect the breadth of their provisions, the fundamental function of fisheries law in a sustainable use, management, and the development of small-scale fisheries is indisputable. Appropriate fisheries legislation provides the strongest possible framework for inclusive, participatory fisheries governance and resource management by providing a coherent basis [...]

Both the CFS Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security (Right to Food Guidelines) and the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) hold the realization of the right to adequate food as their main objective. The Right to Food Guidelines emphasizes the role of small-scale producers in several sections and the SSF Guidelines as their first objective call “to enhance the contribution to fisheries to food security and nutrition and support the realization to the [...]

The purpose of this study was to analyse the position of women in the maize and bean value chains in Rwanda, as well as the current and potential role of financial service providers (FSPs) in strengthening the positioning of women in these chains. The study used the women’s economic empowerment framework for the conceptual analysis, while similarly looking at overall financial inclusion indicators. This was all done within the context of a value chain analysis. The value chain concept provided a framework for analysis and explained the different functions in the value chains for bean and for maize, including the roles [...]

The idea that resilience plays a role in mitigating the effects of disaster and climate change is becoming widespread across the development community. As a result, efforts have been made to translate the concept of resilience into actionable metrics to better understand it. In this paper, we use panel micro-data from coffee farmers in Guatemala severely affected by a widespread attack of Hemileia Vastatrix (leaf rust). This covariate shock provides a unique opportunity to a) check if greater resilience capacity is associated with better reaction to exogenous shock; and b) explore the key drivers of response mechanisms. Ultimately, this paper [...]

This technical paper includes:- A literature review of the impact of trade policies and domestic support measures (for example, subsidies) on global value chain (GVC) participation including the effects of tariffs and non-tariff measures, Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) and Rules of Origin, as well as recent market developments and trade tensions on GVC linkages.- The computation of indicators and decomposition for 18 agri-food sectors and 29 countries and aggregate regions, derived from the most recent (2014) release of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) database.- The description of the modeling and simulation exercises using a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model [...]

Trade liberalization has long been advocated as a means to foster growth and welfare. In developing countries, the expansion of global value chain (GVC) participation of agriculture and food sectors could support transformation from a subsistence-oriented and farm-centered system to a commercialized, productive and off-farm centered one.While empirical evidence examining the linkages between GVC participation and economic performance in the agricultural sector has traditionally relied on case studies at the product level, the availability of new aggregate data on trade in value added, now provides an unprecedented opportunity to carry out a global empirical assessment of the linkages.The present paper [...]

Farmer participation in agricultural markets is of major importance for rural economic growth and poverty alleviation in developing countries. This paper discusses market failures and constraints in agriculture in low-income countries, focusing on how these failures and constraints affect small farmers, input sellers and output buyers. It then explores innovative models implemented to address these challenges, including: out- grower schemes; input bundling programmes; decommodification through quality product differentiation; information and communication technologies; distributed ledger technologies; and direct purchasing models. Finally, the paper reviews the existing evidence surrounding these innovative approaches and highlights evidentiary gaps. See here The State of Agricultural Commodity [...]

Digital technologies have a high potential to enable further development of the agricultural sector, significantly reshape food value chains (FVCs), and greatly contribute towards more productive, resilient and transparent food systems. This paper provides a non-technical overview of digital technologies that have a high potential to revolutionize the agriculture and food industry, and contribute towards inclusion of small farmers into FVCs. The particular focus is on digital platforms providing e-commerce services and distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), such as blockchain, as they mutually enable more efficient and more inclusive local and global agricultural markets by tackling their contribution to reducing information asymmetries, [...]