Parliamentarians from different regions convened to discuss the role of parliaments and parliamentary networks in fighting hunger and malnutrition at an FAO side event at the 51st session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in Rome in October 2023, with conversation covering the Right to Adequate Food and identifying pathways and mechanisms to more systematically involve parliaments and parliamentary networks in CFS work. An exchange of lessons learned provided examples of how to capitalize on parliamentary networks to strengthen the uptake of CFS recommendations and their incorporation in national legislation and policies. The Second...

FAO is engaging with Member states of the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament (PARLATINO) as they look to design a regional model law on Agroecology. FAO already has a basis for this work, as a legal study it conducted with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) within the Scaling up Agroecology Initiative in 2021, offers guidelines for the design of such a model law. In 2022, PARLATINO formally requested FAO’s technical support to draft the model law. Since then, FAO has organized three public consultations with the Caribbean, Mesoamerica and South America to collect inputs from...

As the world faces armed conflicts, a climate crisis, an economic slowdown, and the depletion of natural resources, parliamentary action to tackle hunger and malnutrition is critical. Parliamentarians – with their powers to draft and adopt legislation, approve public budgets and monitor the implementation of public policies and government commitments – are well placed to ensure that food security and nutrition, the progressive realization of the right to adequate food, and the transformation of food systems are prioritized on national policy and legislative agendas. To look at the way forward through parliamentary action, FAO, together with the Spanish Agency...

As the world faces conflicts, a climate crisis, COVID-19 and the depletion of natural resources, parliamentary action to tackle hunger and malnutrition is critical. Parliamentarians – with their powers to draft and adopt legislation, approve public budgets and monitor the implementation of public policies and government commitments – are well placed to ensure that food security and nutrition are prioritized on national political and legislative agendas. To look at the way forward through parliamentary action, FAO, together with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) in close collaboration with the Chilean government, the Spanish Parliament, the National Congress of Chile and the Parliamentary Front against Hunger...

On 13 March 2023, FAO’s Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division, Regional Office for Africa, and Development Law Service addressed the Gender Committee of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) to highlight key legal challenges to gender equality in agrifood systems and provide recommendations for the development of a new model law.  Proposal of a model law on gender equality in agrifood systems comes as part of an ongoing collaboration between FAO and PAP to develop regional framework laws to improve food security and nutrition in Africa. FAO and PAP have had a Memorandum of Understanding in place since 2016 under the...