Food Security
The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008. High food prices and food security - threats and opportunities
FAO, 2008
The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008 presents the latest statistics on global undernourishment. It reviews the impact of high food prices and concludes that chronic hunger in the world has increased rapidly, now affecting well over 900 million people, and placing tremendous pressure on achieving hunger reduction. This report also examines how high food prices present an opportunity to relaunch smallholder agriculture in the developing world.
Helping Women Respond to the Global Food Price Crisis
IFPRI, Policy Brief No. 007 , October 2008
The current food price crisis has received widespread attention, but discussions to date have largely overlooked the gender dimensions of the crisis. More than 15 years of rigorous research on gender and intra-household resource allocation suggest not only that men and women will be affected differently by the global food crisis, but also that, as both consumers and producers, they will have different stocks of resources with which to respond to rising prices. Although the current situation calls for an urgent national and international response, urgency is not an excuse for misguided policies that fail to address the gender implications of the crisis. Instead, decision makers should take this opportunity to incorporate what is known about women’s roles in agricultural production and household welfare, and the specific challenges they face, both to craft more effective policy responses and to enable women to respond better to the current challenges and opportunities.
Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook
World Bank, FAO, and IFAD, 2008
Women play a vital role as agricultural producers and as agents of food and nutritional security. Yet relative to men, they have less access to productive assets such as land and services such as finance and extension. A variety of constraints impinge upon their ability to participate in collective action as members of agricultural cooperative or water user associations. In both centralized and decentralized governance systems, women tend to lack political voice.
Gender inequalities result in less food being grown, less income being earned, and higher levels of poverty and food insecurity. Agriculture in low-income developing countries is a sector with exceptionally high impact in terms of its potential to reduce poverty. Yet for agricultural growth to fulfil this potential, gender disparities must be addressed and effectively reduced.
The evolving contexts of AIDS and the challenges for food security and rural livelihoods
FAO (ESW), September 2008
This paper focuses on the changing context of the HIV epidemic, with the aim of generating new insights into what it means for rural societies. The paper argues that although there are signs that the epidemic is stabilizing or even declining in some highly affected countries, the socio-economic effects associated with HIV and AIDS will continue to be considerable for many years to come – and as such they require innovative, well coordinated and appropriately planned responses from the agriculture sector.
Failing the Rural Poor: Aid, Agriculture and the Millennium Development Goals
ActionAid, September 2008
This briefing focuses on a sector that is critical in ending hunger – agriculture. In particular, it focuses on the role of aid to agriculture in developing countries. Aid is not the only instrument of inter-government policy that impacts on agriculture and the ability of people to feed themselves adequately – trade and private investment are also of central importance. This briefing shows the ways that aid has helped to cement the current food crisis. It also makes a series of recommendations to national governments and donors on how to reshape their support for this critical sector.
A Significant Shift - Women, Food Security and Agriculture in a Global Marketplace
ICRW, 2008
This paper reviews current thinking and practice on increasing agricultural productivity, both subsistence and commercial agriculture, and examines what is known about women’s roles in both sectors. In sum, new directions in development assistance and agricultural investments must recognize and support women’s involvement in the full agricultural value chain from production to processing to marketing. For small-scale and women farmers, the international community must support investments to improve subsistence farming, expand opportunities for commercial farming, and increase access to wider and more lucrative markets. For the millions of landless and land-poor women and men, the international community must expand opportunities for wage employment, both on- and off-farm.
Healthier farmers, better products
LEISA Magazine, Vol. 23, No. 3, Sept 2007
In recent years there has been a growing interest in the links between food, food production and health. In this issue we present examples of how such links between health issues and agriculture have been addressed in practical ways. There are articles about the use of traditional crops and food gardens for fighting AIDS in South Africa, the use of medicinal plants and local health traditions for primary health care in India, and how health concerns are driving safer vegetable production in Vietnam.
Family nutrition guide (CD-ROM)
FAO, 2007
The Family Nutrition Guide is a practical guide that aims to improve the feeding and nutrition of families in developing countries. It is primarily written for health workers, nutritionists, agricultural extensionists or other development workers who design nutrition education materials and activities and work with people at community level. It should also be useful to mothers or other caregivers who want to know more about family feeding, as well as anyone training health staff and other community-level workers. This CD includes the three language versions (English, French and Spanish).
Ensuring a food secure future: ingredients for change
Panos London, 2007
Hunger hits the headlines during times of famine, yet chronic food shortages are part of everyday life for millions of people in Africa and Asia. This package of media resources exploring food security includes free-to-reproduce print and audio features, as well as a briefing to help editors and journalists cover the complex issues raised by research. Panos has commissioned local reporters in Kenya, India, Malawi, Swaziland and Zambia to talk to people about their relationship with food. The resulting print and audio features are free to reproduce.
Food Security Information for Action
EC/FAO, 2007
The Food Security Information for Action Programme is funded by the European Commission (EC) and implemented and coordinated by FAO. Its website provides access to Food Security related information and resources produced by the programme. Its overall purpose is to enhance national capacity to use food security information from different sectors and sources for more effective anti-hunger policies and programmes.
Gender in advocacy on trade and food security
CIDSE & Caritas Internationalis, August 2006
As gender is one of the two cross-cutting priorities of the CIDSE Strategic Framework 2005-2008, the Trade and Food Security Working Group decided to make an assessment of the integration of the gender perspective with the objective to clarify and develop this dimension in its advocacy work.
FAO LinKS Training Manual - Building on Gender, Agrobiodiversity and Local Knowledge
FAO, March 2006
This training manual is based on experiences collected in numerous training workshops carried out under the FAO-LinKS project in Eastern and Southern Africa. It constitutes a conceptual guide for trainers that can be used to lead them through the issues of gender and local knowledge which are important elements for agrobiodiversity management and food security.
Food Security in Practice No. 2: Using Gender Research in Development
IFPRI, 2006
This practitioner’s guide bridges the gap between research and practice by providing up-to-date, relevant information on why and how gender issues, when taken into account, can improve the design, implementation, and effectiveness of development projects and policies.
FAO Telefood - Building solidarity to end world hunger
Since 1997, FAO has organised TeleFood, a campaign of concerts, sporting events and other activities to harness the power of media, celebrities and concerned citizens to help fight hunger. Money raised through TeleFood pays for small, sustainable projects that help small-scale farmers produce more food for their families and communities. Since its start, the campaign has generated more than US$12 million in donations.
FAO Gender and Development Plan of Action 2002-2007. Gender, Key to Sustainability and Food Security
FAO's Gender and Development Plan of Action 2002-2007 embodies the continuation of the Organisation's longstanding commitment to the equality of opportunities and rights for women and men.
