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The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented emergency and grave societal threat. It is affecting key sectors that contribute to global food security, nutrition and livelihoods, including the livestock sector. This policy brief describes the observed and potential impacts of COVID-19 on the livestock sector, based on evidence from the ongoing crisis and past epidemics. It highlights key impacts on animal production, processing, transport, sales and consumption as well as on the poorest and most vulnerable. Finally, the brief provides examples of country responses as well as policy options for consideration by national policy makers to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 [...]

This policy brief reviews on going challenges and proposes recommendations on integrated water resources management approach that embraces the value of water in all its forms and recognizes the intrinsic role of water in protecting human, animal and ecosystem health. This multi-sectoral approach to integrated water resources management under the One Water One Health concept of water recognizes that decisions regarding land and water use have real implications for health. Less-resilient ecosystems, shifts in patterns of disease emergence and spreading, manifest themselves when we fail to recognize this relationship.

People living in context prone to or affected by conflict suffer from many forms of deprivation. The international community plays a crucial role in strengthening the wellbeing of affected populations, including their food security. Unfortunately, quite often people exposed to conflict are not reached by national or international assistance because of targeting, accessibility, and marginalization. This can ultimately translate into a further deterioration of their food security status. This paper combines a geo-referenced household dataset collected in South Sudan in 2017 with the Armed Conflict Location and Events Data (ACLED), including information on conflict events. The collection of a very detailed [...]

FAO is uniquely positioned to contribute to global efforts to reduce the prevalence of overweight, obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) through the support it provides to countries in reforming their food systems and its work with line ministries responsible for agriculture, trade, environment and rural development, as well as with other UN agencies and development partners. This brief, prepared by FAO as part of a set of United Nations system agency briefs under the UN Interagency Task Force on NCDs, presents FAO key areas of engagement and partnerships to address the challenge of NCDs.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), together with the World Bank, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), have developed the Livestock Sector Investment and Policy Toolkit (LSIPT) toolkit to support teams and decision-makers to increase and improve policies and livestock investments that contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The toolkit enables a shift from the traditional approach centred on livestock production to one that focuses on households and human well-being with the goal of poverty reduction.

This technical guidance brief summarizes some of the current thinking on how livestock can address the nutritional needs of vulnerable households and groups. It outlines recommendations for designing and implementing livestock interventions to leverage nutrition outcomes. It is intended for use by programme planners and managers working for government, humanitarian and development agencies involved in designing and implementing livestock-related policies and programmes, with the objective of helping in integration of nutrition outcomes in their work. Additionally, it is aimed at those involved in developing nutritional polices and strategies, to take into consideration the potential of livestock based strategies to improve nutrition. [...]

Nigeria's society and the economy will grow swiftly and transform extensively in the next three decades. Along this transformative process, the demand for animal-source food will exponentially increase and livestock is likely to become the most important sector of agriculture.This document is the executive summary and it condenses the main reflections of a broader report about the feasible future scenarios for livestock in the country and how to be prepared to ensure sustainable livestock production.

In an effort to improve the capacity of countries to promptly react to fast-moving transboundary animal diseases, the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia has developed a series of awareness materials in different languages on priority diseases of the region. Three type of materials have been produced so far: leaflets, posters and videos. Leaflets and posters have been developed in a fully editable format (PowerPoint) that allows veterinary services and other institutions to quickly adapt, translate, add logos, change pictures, etc. when faced with an animal health emergency. The materials are now available online in English, plus some other [...]

Gender equality is a key to eliminating poverty and hunger, as it has been demonstrated by the FAO throughout its research worldwide. As part of the FAO efforts on generating evidence and knowledge, and in compliance with the FAO Policy on Gender Equality, the purpose of the Country Gender Assessment for Uzbekistan is to contribute to the production of knowledge for better informed, targeted and gender sensitive actions in agriculture and rural development. It has been produced as it is required in the FAO Policy on Gender Equality, and was validated in a high-level national workshop with representatives from the [...]

Why does mountain agriculture deserve special attention in a Zero Hunger context? Firstly, because hunger remains common in many mountainous areas. While on a global scale, food insecurity has tended to go down, mountain dwellers have fared worse than people living in plains. Secondly, because mountains cover a large part of the world, especially in Asia: the continent hosts more than one-third of the world’s mountains. Many Asian countries are dominated by mountains: for instance, nearly the entire land area in Bhutan is mountainous, and Lao PDR has 89 percent of its land area classified as mountainous or upland – [...]