| The Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA) is the focal point for FAO's economic research and policy
analysis for food security and sustainable development.
It focuses on analysis of agricultural
and rural development programmes and projects and produces studies
on agriculture in the overall economic development process, poverty
reduction, comparing agricultural development at country and regional
levels, and on the situation and trends of world food security.
The Division publishes The State of Food and Agriculture, one of FAO's flagship publications.
Office of the Director
The Office of the Director is the coordinating and liaison body of
ESA. It exercises overall management and budgetary responsibility,
coordinates the planning of the Division's programme of work and ensures its technical
quality and implementation at HQ and the decentralized offices.
The Office of the Director also identifies programmes and projects
and provides specialized support to FAO's Technical Cooperation
Department (TC), to the World Food Programme (WFP) and to governmental
policy makers in collaboration with the FAO Policy Assistance
Division (TCA) and regional policy assistance groups.
In line with FAO reform, ESA performs a number of functions:
Comparative Agricultural Development
This function analyzes the trends and prospects for agricultural
and rural development at global, regional and country levels.
It conducts research and analysis of development experiences with a focus
on policies underlying economic and agricultural performance.
It prepares regular reports on
the state of food and agriculture to FAO governing bodies and FAO Members.
It provides substantive support to other technical units in FAO,
including TC, for the integration of trends and prospects
to agricultural and rural development policies and programmes.
Agricultural Sector in Economic Development
This function conducts economic research and policy analysis on a number of economic development issues, including the role of agriculture and non-farm activities in rural development and hunger and poverty alleviation; the linkages between natural resource management and poverty; the economic cost of hunger; safety nets and the relationship between poverty and food security.
The work of this function provides an input to various international meetings, conventions and multilateral agreements and supports FAO's effort to promote an enhanced role for agriculture and the rural space in economic development, food security and poverty alleviation. It maintains close collaboration with other divisions within FAO and contributes to flagship publications and reports; liaises with academic and research institutions and with international development organizations, and represents FAO in professional meetings and conferences related to the Division's mandate.
Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis
This function analyses food security and food aid policies,
provides secretariat services for the Committee on World Food Security,
identifies vulnerable populations, designs food security information systems,
and formulates disaster and drought preparedness plans and food stock management procedures.
It also develops methodologies and guidelines to improve the
integration of concepts related to social welfare, environment, sustainability,
and nutrition in projects and policies. It maintains professional
contact with other organizations and academic institutions working on food security and
represents FAO in meetings related to the Division's mandate.
Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS)
Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems ( FIVIMS) are networks of national information systems that assemble, analyse and disseminate data on food insecurity and vulnerability.
Right to Food
The Right to Food function supports the implementation of the human right to adequate food, using FAO's Right to Food Guidelines. It develops methods and instruments to assist stakeholders in the implementation of the right to food and information and training materials to raise awareness and understanding by rights holders, duty bearers, civil society and the general public and supports initial national implementation of the right to food at national level. The Right to Food function also works towards integrating the right to food into FAO's work.
Global perspective studies
FAO produces at regular intervals long-term outlook studies for world food and agriculture which are intended to represent the "collective wisdom" of all experts in FAO concerning nearly all issues related to food and agriculture such as expected food demand (and implications for nutrition), production and natural resources use, international trade and globalization, investment, rural poverty and institutions, fisheries and forestry. The latest (partial interim) report is "World agriculture: towards 2030/2050". By its very nature the global perspective studies are based on a multi-disciplinary approach and draw on contributions from all technical Divisions in FAO (in particular on the agro-ecological zone analysis). In addition to the main reports, the analysis underlying the global perspective studies leads to the publication of many papers and reports on topics such as the impact of bio-fuels and climate change on agriculture, investment in agriculture and so on, in preparation of the main reports.
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