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A sustainable agriculture and rural development strategy for Oman Oman’s recent economic growth still depends on hydrocarbon revenue and foreign labour. Sustainable development in the agriculture sector would increase agriculture’s contribution to the gross domestic product and employment, and enable the sector to improve Oman’s trade balance. The objective of the project was thus to support the government in analyzing the existing situation and formulating a sustainable agricultural development and rural development strategy to address the efficient and sustainable use of the scarce natural resources for the improved livelihoods of the Omani people. Duration: 01/01/2013 - 01/03/2017

On 25 September 2015, the 193 Member States of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – including 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets – committing the international community to end poverty and hunger and achieve sustainable development between 2016 and 2030. Six months later, a global indicator framework for the SDGs – comprising 230 indicators - was identified to monitor the 169 targets and track progress, becoming the foundation of the SDGs’ accountability structure. The number of indicators - four times greater than for the MDGs - represents an immense challenge for countries. FAO [...]

The Decent Rural Employment Toolbox has been designed to provide guidance to policy makers and planners, rural development practitioners and FAO staff at country level on how to systematize and scale up ongoing efforts to promote decent employment in rural areas.  The toolbox is organized in modules that cover the main components of FAO's approach to mainstreaming decent rural employment and offers quick access to practical tools including case studies, guidance materials and other useful resources. Module 1: Integrated Country Approach Module 2: Evidence & Advocacy Module 3: Youth employment Module 4: Child labour Module 5: Women and decent work

The report sheds some light on the nature of the challenges that agriculture and food systems are facing now and throughout the 21st century, and provides some insights as to what is at stake and what needs to be done. What emerges is that “business as usual” is no longer an option but calls for major transformations in agricultural systems, in rural economies and in how we manage our natural resources. The following complementary information is available: Overview Summary Infographic FAO's work on Global Perspectives Studies

This report provides an overview of a study conducted in the NENA region in 2015-2016 in partnership with FAO, CIRAD, CIHEAM-IAMM and six national teams, each of which prepared a national report. In the six countries under review in the NENA region (Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Mauritania, Sudan and Tunisia), agriculture is carried out primarily by small-scale family farmers, the majority of whom run the risk of falling into the poverty trap, largely due to the continuous fragmentation of inherited landholdings. As such, the development of small-scale family farming can no longer be based solely on intensifying agriculture, as the farmers [...]

The smallholder farmers' dataportrait is a comprehensive, systematic and standardized data set on the profile of smallholder farmers across the world.  It generates an image on how small family farmers in developing and emerging countries live their lives. It is about putting in numbers, the constraints they face, and the choices they make so that policies can be informed by evidence to meet the challenge of agricultural development. Currently, the data portrait provides information for fourteen countries. 

This Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) Manual is designed as a tool for project practitioners of a broad range of projects and programmes of any development organization, by providing information about the right to FPIC and how it can be implemented in six steps.In an FPIC process, the “how”, “when” and “with and by whom”, are as important as “what” is being proposed. For an FPIC process to be effective and result in consent or lack of it, the way in which the process is conducted is paramount. The time allocated for the discussions among the indigenous peoples, the [...]

In many regions of the world, sustainable and reliable delivery of water services has become increasingly complex and problematic. Complexities that are very likely to increase, considering the unprecedented confluence of pressures linked to demographic, economic, dietary trends, and climate change. Particularly if overall demand for freshwater exceeds supply, the delivery of water services is often less about engineering, although engineering is still required, and more about politics, governa nce, managing and protecting sources, resolving conflicts about water, ensuring rights to water are respected, and so on. It is also about understanding and monitoring the hydrological cycle at the appropriate scale [...]

FAO recognizes the potential of rural women and men in achieving food security and nutrition and is committed to overcoming gender inequality, in line with the pledge to “leave no one behind”, which is at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda. The publication illustrates the consistent and sustained work of FAO towards gender equality and women’s empowerment, which are at the core of the Organization’s work to eliminate hunger and rural poverty. Each chapter highlights the relevance of gender work to achieving the FAO Strategic Objectives, and describes main results achieved, showcasing activities implemented [...]

The Guidance document aims to assist FAO Members in incorporating decent rural employment interventions across different agricultural sub-sectors. It is organized into three main sections that answer respectively to the questions: "Why", "When" and "How" to integrate DRE. In particular, the section on “How to incorporate DRE considerations” outlines and analyzes the following 4 strategic planning phases: Phase 1: Conducting the problem and stakeholder analysis – Applying a DRE lens; Phase 2: Defining desired impacts and beneficiaries – Prioritizing DRE; Phase 3: Developing the result chain and the strategies and programmes to achieve the results - Developing a DRE-inclusive results [...]