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This strategy proposes that FAO’s vision for nutrition is a world where all people are eating healthy diets from sustainable, inclusive and resilient agri-food systems. The mission is to tackle malnutrition in all its forms by accelerating impactful policies and actions across agri-food systems to enable healthy diets for all. Through this mission, and in the realization of the aspiration of Better Nutrition, FAOwill contribute to the achievement of targets across the SDGs including SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 3, SDG10, SDG12, SDG 14, and SDG 17.

Human population growth increases the demand for natural resources in many parts of the world. This has led to the degradation and fragmentation of wildlife habitats, with humans and livestock encroaching on natural habitats. Wildlife is increasingly competing with humans for limited natural resources resulting in an increase in human and wildlife conflicts (HWCs). These conflicts also contribute to the increased risk for emerging infectious disease transmission. FAO’s work on HWC is an integral part of the Wildlife and Protected Areas Management Programme, and it aims at contributing to the achievement of the SDG2 on Zero hunger and SDG15 on Life [...]

This note provides an overview of available evidence on return migration to rural areas due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the related implications for migrant workers and their families and communities of origin, as well as government response measures that have been taken.The inclusion of returnees and consideration of their socio-economic needs in the COVID-19 response and recovery measures is essential, regardless of registration of residence, migratory or working status. The immediate vulnerabilities of rural returnees and their families need to be addressed, while also investing in medium-to-long-term socio-economic objectives, to allow those who want to stay in rural areas to [...]

Territorial markets are essential to the livelihoods and food and nutrition security of populations. These markets are suffering multiple challenges in the current context of COVID-19 related restrictions on travel and transports and global economic slowdown. Against this background, strengthening territorial markets can support food production and access to healthy and nutritious foods. This requires a good understanding of the functioning of these markets. The FAO mapping system for territorial markets has been developed to this scope, and implemented in Tanzania as illustrated in this brief.See the full list of policy briefs related to COVID-19.

Bien que les flux migratoires en provenance des zones rurales soient un phénomène courant dans la plupart des pays en développement, nous disposons de peu d'informations sur leur dynamique et leurs déterminants. Dans ce contexte, en septembre 2017, dans le cadre du projet «Favoriser les investissements productifs pour créer des emplois agricoles et non agricoles décents pour les jeunes ruraux des zones sujettes aux migrations au Sénégal», la FAO et l'Agence nationale sénégalaise de statistique et de démographie ( ANSD) a mené une enquête auprès des ménages dans le but de générer des informations sur les phénomènes de migration en [...]

Identifying sustainable sources of renewable energy is key to ensuring that countries can grow on a sustainable path that also meets climate change targets as outlined in countries’ NDCs.Among renewables, bioenergy can attract investments in the rural sector and help farmers to improve their income by increasing agricultural production and diversifying markets for by-products, such as digestate. FAO’s Bioenergy and Food Security (BEFS) Approach assists countries in defining which bioenergy options can be both sustainable and viable while ensuring food security and protecting the environment.In Rwanda the agriculture sector plays a key role in its economy, contributing around one-third of [...]

Applying the Degree of Urbanisation — A methodological manual to define cities, towns and rural areas for international comparisons has been produced in close collaboration by six organisations — the European Commission, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHabitat), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and The World Bank.This manual develops a harmonised methodology to facilitate international statistical comparisons and to classify the entire territory of a country along an urban-rural continuum. The degree of urbanisation classification defines cities, towns and semi-dense areas, [...]

Despite the importance of social protection, today more than 70 percent of the world’s population still has no or limited access to comprehensive social protection. Coverage in rural areas, where about 80 percent of the world’s poor live, is even lower. Achieving an effective extension of the coverage of social protection benefits and services to the rural population is a key challenge which must be addressed in order to achieve SDG 1.3. “Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable”.This will require bridging gaps [...]

On top of a decade of exacerbated disaster loss, exceptional global heat, retreating ice and rising sea levels, humanity and our food security face a range of new and unprecedented hazards, such as megafires, extreme weather events, desert locust swarms of magnitudes previously unseen, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Agriculture underpins the livelihoods of over 2.5 billion people – most of them in low-income developing countries – and remains a key driver of development. At no other point in history has agriculture been faced with such an array of familiar and unfamiliar risks, interacting in a hyperconnected world and a precipitously [...]

Globally, and with only a few exceptions, rural and indigenous women fare worse than rural men and urban women and men on every indicator for which data are available. Although they share challenges in the form of rural location and genderbased discrimination, rural women and girls are not a homogeneous group. The opportunities and constraints they face differ across their lifetimes, contexts and circumstances; they are influenced by location and socio-economic statusand social identities associated with other forms of marginalization, such as indigenous origin and ethnicity, age, disability, migrant or refugee status. The complex experiences of rural and indigenous women [...]