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The relationship between trade and food security is attracting increased attention on both the trade and development agendas, with trade recognized as one of the means for achieving the SDGs. The linkages between these concepts are highly complex and have been subject to intense debates. While on the one hand, agricultural trade is considered to balance food deficits and surpluses and broaden consumer choice, on the other, it is also implicated in exposing small-scale value chain actors to greater competition, and speeding up a nutrition transition.

This course seeks to strengthen capacities of agricultural and trade sector stakeholders to:

• Assess the challenges and opportunities posed by greater openness to trade for food security and nutrition;
• Evaluate different types of trade policy measures and their role in promoting food security and nutrition, in order to design and implement coherent and evidence-based policies; 
• Formulate agricultural trade strategies and negotiate trade agreements, taking into consideration the global and regional regulatory frameworks governing trade, food security and nutrition.