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Interim guidance: sustaining FAO’s commitment to Environmental and Social Standards during the COVID-19 pandemic











FAO. 2020. Interim guidance: sustaining FAO’s commitment to Environmental and Social Standards during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rome. 



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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Q&As: How is FAO staying committed to its Environmental and Social Standards during COVID-19? 2020
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    FAO's Environmental and Social Standards (2015) ensure that FAO projects and programmes conform to sustainability criteria and mitigate potential adverse impacts to achieve expected outcomes. A COVID-19 outbreak in countries already affected by existing shocks, including political instability, conflict and natural disasters, could further exacerbate food insecurity. FAO proposes additional guidance to prevent and mitigate COVID-19 immediate impacts and support national, regional and local mandates in areas where FAO projects and programmes are in place.
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    Agricultural trade & policy responses during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 2021
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    Measures adopted around the world to contain the COVID-19 outbreak helped curb the spread of the virus and lowered the pressure on health systems. However, they also affected the global trading system, and the supply and demand of agricultural and food products. In response to concerns over food security and food safety worldwide, many countries reacted immediately to apply policy measures aiming to limit potentially adverse impacts on domestic markets. Covering the first half of 2020, the report provides an overview of short-term changes in trade patterns and policy measures related to agricultural trade that countries adopted in response to the pandemic. Despite the shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and containment measures, the efforts of governments and agricultural sector stakeholders to keep agricultural markets open and trade flowing smoothly contributed to remarkably resilient value chains. Effects on global trade in food and agriculture remained limited to short-term disruptions at the very beginning of the pandemic. Governments’ policy responses covered a wide range of measures, including export restrictions, lowering of import barriers, and domestic measures. Most of the trade restricting measures were short-lived. International political commitments were pivotal in the coordination of a global response to the crisis and in deterring countries from taking unilateral measures that could have harmed food security in other parts of the world. However, COVID-19 is still spreading and may entail severe implications for access to food and longer-term shifts in global demand and supply of food and agricultural commodities.
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    Information and tools for young agricultural workers during COVID-19 crisis 2020
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    The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis which is already affecting the food and agriculture sector. Countries with existing humanitarian crises are particularly exposed to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Support to ensure sustainable agriculture production and maintaining the critical supply chain linkages are extremely important during this crisis and in the context of associated lockdown measures implemented by countries. FAO is playing a key role in assessing and responding to the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on people’s lives and livelihoods, global food trade, markets, food supply chains and livestock. To mitigate the pandemic’s impacts on food and agriculture, FAO urges countries to meet the immediate food needs of their vulnerable populations, boost their social protection programmes, keep global food trade going, keep the domestic supply chain gears moving, and support smallholder farmers’ ability to increase food production. There are multiple challenges that need immediate attention to safeguard the livelihoods of the smallholders. Some of these challenges include maintaining the linkages with input suppliers, access to markets, provision of knowledge on innovative technologies and practices, and above all maintaining the employment opportunities for rural agricultural workers and youth. Addressing these challenges requires tools, methods and training resources that young agricultural development professionals and rural youth as the critical agents can apply to facilitate the use of innovative solutions and practices by farmers to be able to face these challenges posed. This brief offers a package of tools, training materials and best practices that are immediately available to support youth in responding to the challenges of the pandemic from a food and agriculture point of view.

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