This intervention will help to catalyze the formulation and implementation of national food system transformation pathways in the sub-region. In addition to building on the opportunities provided by the African Union Agenda 2063, the African Union CAADP and AfCFTA, the proposed program will further enhance FAO’s contribution to the Africa Regional Collaborative Platform (RCP).
The innovation of this project lies in following an inclusive market-based approach that leverages specific strengths and assets of local communities cross the rural-urban continuum to enable economic prosperity and sustainable livelihood. Community members and especially vulnerable groups will be empowered to participate in market activities as economic actors in their own right.
This project will focus on capacity building of national and local stakeholders to make use of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) to improve the land reform processes ongoing in the 3 countries.
This subprogramme was designed to bring about the sustainable and inclusive transformation of agrifood systems with benefits for the poor and marginalized value chain actors, through systemic, coherent and aligned policies, strategies, and programmes, involving all agrifood systems stakeholders across the rural-urban continuum.
The subprogramme seeks to enhance climate resilience and adaptive capacity in rural areas of Uganda and Nepal, targeting communities at high risk of climate-induced migration. It focuses on mitigating the negative effects of climate change and therefore reducing the pressure to migrate out of necessity.
In line with the FAO Rural Youth Action Plan, the CFS Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (CFS-RAI), the FAO Strategic Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals, this subprogramme hence aims to achieve the following impact: “Sustainable economic and territorial development in North Africa has been fostered through responsible agrifood businesses led by young women and men agri-entrepreneurs”.
The project will increase awareness and capacities of public and private institutions to include nutrition-relevant criteria into financing mechanisms for SMEs producing nutritious food and investment strategies for wholesale markets where many SMEs operates.
Placing a substantial programme and policy focus on encouraging youth engagement in non-farm jobs is imperative and as crucial as supporting youth employment in the farming sector.
The key outcome for the subprogramme is the strengthening of Members regulatory instruments and institutional capacity to promote accountable governance for sustainable agrifood systems towards food security and nutrition through effective implementation, compliance with, and enforcement, of relevant agrifood systems legal frameworks.
A new Innovation Policy Lab (IPL) approach is proposed to support innovative, evidence-based policy solutions and their implementation in a multistakeholder setting. This approach has already been applied by the FAO Office of Innovation to support the innovative policy making in several countries.
