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There are eight years left to reach the SDGs. Agrifood systems transformation is urgently needed if we are to achieve sustainability, resilience and food security and nutrition in a post-COVID world.This desired transformation can only be achieved by strengthening and capitalizing on the knowledge, experience, skills, and capabilities for collective action of a broad range of public and private actors each of whom bring distinctive interests, needs, resources, influence and capacities. “Governance” is the name for this multidimensional capability for effective and inclusive collective action at all levels.In many country contexts, it is the governance bottlenecks that lead to a [...]

South-South Cooperation (SSC) is increasingly recognized as an effective instrument for catalyzing economic development by fostering the exchange of innovation and good practices, and expanding market opportunities across countries with a similar level of development and shared development objectives, such as those reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Key to this economic cooperation are trade and investment relationships among South countries. The importance of South countries in global agrifood markets and trade has been increasing over the last two decades, with growth in their participation, as both exporters and importers, having outpaced that of North countries. Agricultural productivity growth has [...]

This study looks at the business models of small and medium sized rice processors in Kenya in order to better understand the policy and technical support they need to grow and fulfil their role in agrifood systems transformation. More specifically, by employing semi-structured interviews with Kenyan rice millers, the technical study identifies challenges in their day-to-day business activities, including procurement, inbound and outbound logistics, in-house operations, financing, and human resources management. Additionally, the publication looks at opportunities for improving the business enabling environment in which these enterprises operate, providing a set of policy options to foster their role. The methodology cross [...]

Small and medium agrifood enterprises (SMAEs) such as processors, transporters and other service providers, play an important role in achieving sustainable development objectives. For instance, they connect farmers to urban markets; make significant investments in rural areas; provide employment to vulnerable populations such as women and youth; and propel the modernization of agrifood value chains. In sub-Saharan Africa, where agriculture comprises 53 percent of total employment and 15.5 percent of gross domestic product, supporting SMAEs can have great implications for pro-poor growth and rural transformation. To support SMAEs in fulfilling their potential, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United [...]

Food and Agricultural Organization’s Integrated Country Approach for boosting decent jobs for youth in agrifood systems carried out a digital readiness assessment of youth in agribusiness in partnership with the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation and youth-led organizations in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.Over 360 young male and female entrepreneurs engaged through an online survey and virtual focus group discussions that generated insights on their interaction with digital technologies, either as entrepreneurs, service providers, or members of youth organizations.This summary note presents key findings on the following topics: agribusiness information flows, youth digital access and preferences, information technology use for business including [...]

Facilitation has proved crucial for enabling the interaction of Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) actors to address the target and to innovate. This “Guide on training of facilitators of multi-actor agricultural innovation platform” is aimed at serving facilitators when multi-actor agricultural innovation platforms (MAIPs) are organized. Since MAIPs are still an emerging concept, there are not many cases to refer to. This guide mainly summarizes the experiences from the implementation of MAIPs in permission, hazelnuts and honey value chains that FAO organized through the EU-funded project of Development of sustainable and inclusive local food systems in north-west region of Azerbaijan (GCP/AZE/014/EC) [...]

FAO commissioned the Consultation and Research Institute to undertake an in-depth assessment of child labour in greenhouses in order to be able to mitigate this phenomenon through FAO’s future projects and programmes. The main objective of the study is to acquire more information and data on child labour in greenhouses in order to be able to determine the assistance necessary to prevent, reduce and eradicate child labour in this field. The resulting evidence will support FAO in the design and implementation of programmes and projects aimed at promoting greenhouses as sustainable and viable businesses that are free from child labour [...]

Sustainable Public Food Procurement (PFP) represents a key game changer for food systems transformation. It can influence both food consumption and food production patterns. It can deliver multiple social, economic, and environmental benefits towards sustainable food systems for healthy diets. This publication aims to contribute to the improved understanding, dissemination, and use of PFP as a development tool in particular in the case of school meals programmes. In this Volume 2, researchers, policymakers, and development partners can find extensive evidence of the instruments, enablers, and barriers for PFP implementation. It also provides case studies with local, regional, and national experiences from [...]

The Progress towards Sustainable Agriculture initiative (PROSA) is a framework that seeks to complement ongoing efforts on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and particularly indicator 2.4.1, to support country-level assessments using data already available at the national level. Making agriculture more sustainable – productive, environmentally friendly, resilient and profitable is fundamental, as agriculture remains the main source of livelihood for the majority of the world’s poor and hungry. The pathway towards sustainable agriculture must ensure increasing output, but also make more efficient use of increasingly scarce global resources, be resilient to and help mitigate climate change, and improve human well-being. This [...]

Sustainable Public Food Procurement (PFP) represents a key game changer for food systems transformation. It can influence both food consumption and food production patterns. It can deliver multiple social, economic, and environmental benefits towards sustainable food systems for healthy diets.This publication aims to contribute to the improved understanding, dissemination, and use of PFP as a development tool in particular in the case of school meals programmes.In Volume 1, researchers, policymakers, and development partners can find evidence on how PFP can be used as a development tool and deliver multiple benefits for multiple beneficiaries. It argues that PFP can provide a [...]