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Supporting smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change is essential for achieving Sustainable Development Goals 1 (No poverty) and 2 (Zero hunger). This will require policies and programs that enable farmers with few resources to adopt farm practices and technologies that reduce sensitivity to rising temperatures, the spread of new pests and diseases, and increasingly erratic rainfall. This brief consolidates evidence and stylized facts to guide policy discussions on climate adaptation in smallholder agriculture, based on work carried out by the FAO Economic and Policy Analysis of Climate Change (EPIC) team.

This “microfinance for small-scale fisheries” brochure is one of the Blue Finance guidance notes, prepared under FAO's Blue Growth Initiative. Other brochures in the Blue Finance guidance notes series cover subjects such as insurance for small-scale fisheries and aquaculture, blue bonds, blended finance and innovative investment approaches. The Blue Finance guidance notes aim to provide governmental, non-governmental, private and public stakeholders with information, resources and concrete pathways for obtaining finance to support blue growth transitions at local, national, regional and global scales.This brochure describes why microfinance is important for small-scale fisheries and aquaculture and gives insight in microfinance and how [...]

The United Nations estimates that $4 trillion a year are needed through 2030 to achieve the SDGs, compared to around $1.5 trillion currently being invested. Public finance does not have sufficient resources to fill this gap, while for developing nations, the private sector is responsible for around 90% of jobs, 60% of investments, most exports, 80% of government revenues and a growing share of essential services, inventions and innovations (World Bank 2019). Blended finance can be used effectively in a number of situations so as to involve in the private sector. Find more Blue Growth guidance notes here.

Impact investment is investing which seeks to generate a positive social and/or environmental benefit as well as a financial return. Investments could include companies, infrastructure, funds, land and non-profits. Impact investing can cover all asset classes, such as equities, fixed income, project finance, real estate and venture capital.While many impact investors cover some of these themes, it is notable that the majority do not focus on blue economy SDGs and fewer than a quarter look at Life Below Water. There is therefore a significant opportunity to tap into the $500bn of impact investment capital to leverage the blue economy.Aquaculture has [...]

This “aquaculture insurance for small-scale producers” brochure is one of the Blue Finance guidance notes, prepared under FAO's Blue Growth Initiative. Other brochures in the Blue Finance guidance notes series cover subjects such as micro-finance and insurance for small-scale fisheries, blue bonds, blended finance and innovative investment approaches. The Blue Finance guidance notes aim to provide governmental, non-governmental, private and public stakeholders with information, resources and concrete pathways for obtaining finance to support blue growth transitions at local, national, regional and global scales.This brochure describes why aquaculture insurance is important for the sustainable development and management of the sector. It [...]

This “insurance for small-scale fisheries” brochure is one of the Blue Finance guidance notes, prepared under FAO's Blue Growth Initiative. Other brochures in the Blue Finance guidance notes series cover subjects such as insurance for small-scale fisheries and aquaculture, blue bonds, blended finance and innovative investment approaches. The Blue Finance guidance notes aim to provide governmental, non-governmental, private and public stakeholders with information, resources and concrete pathways for obtaining finance to support blue growth transitions at local, national, regional and global scales.This brochure describes why insurance is important for the sustainable development and management of small-scale fisheries. It discusses the [...]

Blue Bonds are a subset of the Green Bond Market, a $200 billion global market of environmental bonds that has been growing rapidly. Because they are part of this environmental market, compliance of the underlying projects with appropriate green bond standards is required. This is what sets them apart from ordinary or vanilla bonds. Broadly, these standards address 3 concerns of investors, beyond financial requirements: Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG). Find more Blue Growth guidance notes here.

This course aims to equip project designers and managers with the concepts, principles and tools they need to leverage value chain approaches to improve nutrition through agriculture and food systems. The concept of Sustainable Food Value Chains for Nutrition (SFVCN) was first presented in 2016 at the 43rd session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and is the framework adopted by the Rome Based Agencies (RBAs). An SFVCN approach considers how development of a sustainable food value chain can contribute to improving nutrition of a target population. System RequirementsThe online version of this course runs on the latest versions [...]

The development of sustainable food systems is a key component of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This course discussed why eliminating gender inequalities is pivotal to achieving the necessary transformations. It proposes FAO’s gender-sensitive value chain framework as an approach for the analysis of value chains, and for guiding interventions to address gender-based constraints. Released May 2020.1 h 30 m of learning System RequirementsThe online version of this course runs on the latest versions of Chrome and Safari. In order to access this course on Internet Explorer or Firefox, you must install and enable Adobe Flash player.The downloadable version only runs [...]

The FIRST Programme aims to support the governments of targeted countries to strengthen the enabling policy and institutional environment for food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture (FNSSA). The programme is designed as a demand-based “policy assistance” facility which has its roots in the long-term partnership between FAO and the European Union and aims to add value to both partners’ actions at the country level.The programme approach of embedding a policy officer within partner country administrations, constitutes the best option for building trusted relationships to support improved policy processes. FIRST has created a high level of trust with government partners [...]