Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

2024 marks the 10^th anniversary of the endorsement of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines). This call is an important stock taking opportunity for all and the results are expected to further inform FAO, governments, SSF organizations, NGOs development partners, CSOs, research and other partners initiatives to implement the SSF Guidelines at national, regional or global level.

In 2014, the FAO Committee on Fisheries endorsed the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines). FAO is working towards developing guidance for measuring progress at the national level of the implementation of the SSF Guidelines. This e-consultation aims to solicit views, recommendations, suggestions, and good practices for monitoring the implementation of the SSF Guidelines. 

In November 2012, the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) requested the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) to conduct a study on The Role of Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture for food security and nutrition. Taking into account the results of the scoping consultation, the HLPE intends to assess the importance and relevance of Fisheries and Aquaculture for Food Security and nutrition as well as the current challenges faced by Fisheries and Aquaculture in relation to Food Security, pointing out changes going on, including overexploitation of fish stocks and the boom of aquaculture, in order to better understand these changes and to maximize the positive effects of them.

As part of the process of elaboration of its reports, the HLPE now seeks inputs, suggestions, comments on the present V0 draft.

This e-consultation will be used by the HLPE to further elaborate the report, which will then be submitted to external expert review, before finalization and approval by the HLPE Steering Committee.

Following the recommendation of the 29th Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI), FAO engaged in a consultative process to support the development of Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF). We would hence like to invite you to this e-consultation to share your experiences and views on how the SSF Guidelines could be implemented effectively following their adoption by the FAO Committee on Fisheries in June 2014.

The outcome of the e-consultation will provide inputs for the FAO Secretariat to draft a holistic and inclusive global assistance programme taking your lessons learnt, best practices, plans and expectations into account.

Duly recognising the significant role played by fisheries and aquaculture in food security and nutrition, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in its thirty-ninth Session (October 2012) requested the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE), to undertake a study on the Role of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for food security and nutrition to be presented to the Plenary in 2014.

As part of its report elaboration process, the HLPE is now launching an e-consultation to seek views, public feedback and comments, on the pertinence and relative importance of some key questions that the report proposes to address, in line with the request from the CFS, and that could form the building blocks of the report.