المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

The need for concerted action to prevent the COVID-19 international health emergency from triggering a catastrophic world food crisis received a welcome new tool today as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations formally launched the Food Coalition.

A "network of networks", the Food Coalition is a voluntary multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral alliance set up to support innovative initiatives to ensure global food access, increase the resilience of agri-food systems and put them on a more sustainable course.

First suggested by the Government of Italy and with more than 30 countries having already expressed interest in joining, it will support existing and future efforts to overcome the pandemic's disruptive impacts and help countries get back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, particularly those of ending hunger and poverty.

FAO signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in July 2018 with the Italian Research Institutions: the National Research Council (CNR); the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA); the National Agency for New Technologies, Renewable Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA); and the Italian Institute for Environmental Research and Protection (ISPRA). The overarching objective of the cooperation between FAO and CNR, CREA, ENEA and ISPRA is the promotion of sustainability at large in the context of joint efforts for achieving Agenda 2030.

This cooperation also promoted the secondment of staff and researchers from the developing countries to work with Italian Research Institutes. As part of the joint work plan, there were number of activities successfully completed including the research work of the visiting scientists to ENEA from Burkina Faso, Republic of the Congo and Cameroon. To promote communication initiatives aimed at enhancing the impact and visibility of the activities undertaken in the context of MoU, FAO’s Research and Extension Unit (AGDR) and the National Agency for New Technologies, Renewable Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) are jointly organizing a webinar on “Promoting collaborative research for sustainable agri-food systems for achieving Agenda 2030”.

This webinar will focus on the results of the research work carried out by the visiting scientists from Africa to ENEA in the field of microbiome application for sustainable agri-food systems.

The webinar will be an opportunity for all partners of the MoU to briefly share their reflections and to promote interactive discussion on the topics of presentations.

Presentations:

• The ENEA Initiatives in supporting the Sustainable Agri-food systems: ENEA–TWAS Research Training Fellowships Programme 2018-2020 (Massimo Iannetta, ENEA)
• Antifungal activity of local plants extracts against seed-borne fungi in Burkina Faso (Leon W. Nitiema, Institut de l’Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA), Burkina Faso)
• Soil organic matter, C and P dynamics in the mixed-species plantations of Acacia and Eucalypts in the Congolese coastal plains (Stella-Koutika, Research Center on Sustainability and Productivity of Industrial Plantations (CRDPI), Republic of the Congo)
• Optimization of the antimicrobial efficiency of low thermal treatment of fruit juices in combination with natural aroma compounds (Alex Dimitri Tchuenchieu Kamgain, Centre for Food and Nutrition Research, IMPM, Cameroon)
• Microbiome application for sustainable food system: from field to food quality and safety (Annamaria Bevivino, ENEA)

Target audience:

Researchers and development practitioners interested and engaged in agricultural research on agri-food systems and related topics.

Registration:

The webinar has limited number of participants, thus we invite your early registration here. It will also help us to stay in touch and keep you informed on our next webinars of the partnership between FAO and the Italian Research Institutions! The webinar will be in English, for duration of 100 minutes.

The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is hosting a Seminar, jointly organised by the Italian Development Cooperation, FAO, IFAD, the International Poverty Reduction Centre in China and the China Internet Information Center (CIIC) on "Global Partnerships for Poverty Reduction". The seminar will take place on Friday 28 April and aims at sharing succesful experiences on poverty reduction at country level; raising awareness on key challenges faced by governments, policy makers and practitioners; increasing awareness and knowledge on progress made in poverty reduction at country, regional and international level and discussing the role of South-to-South and Triangular Cooperation in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
The Seminar will also showcase different knowledge platforms and networks, including the FSN Forum and the Global Poverty Reduction and Inclusive Growth (GPIG) Portal, emphasising their contribution to global poverty eradication. 

The United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN) mandate is to provide global strategic guidance and advocacy in nutrition to ensure engagement and investment at the highest level and to ensure progress towards nutrition security for all.

The UNSCN is open to UN Agencies and platforms and includes a number of the major UN players in the international food and nutrition fields.

International Forum on Eurasian Food Security and Nutrition Network and Eurasian Soil Partnership will present the opportunity to discuss and analyze current trends in food security management in the Eurasian region; generate the discussion about best and most effective practices to promote and expand multi- and cross-sectoral collaboration on a country, regional and global level; and offer the floor for the Eurasian Soil Partnership Plenary meeting.

At this event, we are delighted to host food policy makers and policy professionals from Armenia, Republic of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and other countries from the ECA region; members of globally-known international organizations such as IFAD and various CG centers; members from global and regional food policy think-tanks, academia, extension services and agro-business representatives from the Eurasian region.

The Forum is jointly organized by the Eurasian Center for Food Security (ECFS), FAO, the World Bank, IFPRI, and GFAR.

ECFS acts as a hub for agro-policy, agronomics, and agribusiness knowledge management, contributing to the improvement of food security in the Eurasian region. Simultaneously, ECFS in partnership with FAO Global Soil Partnership facilitates the Eurasian Soil Partnership (EASP), which is dedicated to examining soil management issues in the Eurasian region. One of the major goals of the Center and the EASP is to create a dynamic network of agricultural researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to exchange knowledge and promote effective practices in managing food insecurity in the Eurasian region.

• Forum Agenda
• Participant Guide

The SAVE FOOD Initiative will be hosting a two-day partnership meeting in Rome on 10 and 11 December this year, to discuss further collaboration and the roles partners can (or want to) play in reducing food loss and waste. The meeting targets the 170 current partners in SAVE FOOD, and reaches out to other organizations and companies that are active in food loss or waste reduction.

http://www.fao.org/save-food/44242

The Eurasian Food Security Network has just been launched with the first online consultation Food Security issues in the Eurasian region: major challenges and G8/G20 initiatives in relation with the regional situation.

The Eurasian Food Security Network was set up for the Eurasian Center for Food Security (ECFS) as a result of the collaboration between the ECFS, the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).
The ECFS was established in June 2011 within the Moscow State University with the vision to contribute to sustainable agriculture development and natural resource management and to provide research and advisory services on food security matters to beneficiaries in the Eurasian Region and globally.

In support of this objective, the ECFS and FAO's Global Forum for Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum) will be running online consultations to bring together stakeholders from governments, civil society organizations, research institutes, academia, and associations allowing them to enter into a dialogue.

Through inputs from a wide set of stakeholders the ECFS aims to get a clear picture of the main challenges to food security and to understand the priorities of the different countries and stakeholder groups.

The main questions tackled in the first online consultation are:

• What are the major challenges facing Eurasian countries in improving their food security situation?
• Are current policies conducive to ensure food security in your country?
• What do the decision makers from the Eurasian region expect from the G8/G20 initiatives in relation to food security issues?
   

The first online consultation, which is being held in both Russian and English, will run until the 16th of June 2013 and is open to everyone interested in the subject.

Given the rapid expansion of the internet and the increasing number of users, including in the global South, the full potential of online platforms for promoting inclusive consultation of issues of high global interest is certainly not yet realised. An online discussion was organised to share views and perspectives on how online platforms could be used more creatively and effectively to share experiences on a key area where information and lessons learned through various interventions from around the world are generally dispersed, that is the area of monitoring women’s land rights.

The objective of the online discussion was twofold: (a) engage a collective reflection on ways of optimising the use of online platforms in efforts to promote equitable and sustainable natural governance and social justice; and, (b) to share experiences on approaches to monitoring women’s land rights.

The discussion was running simultaneously on landportal.info and across the following five platforms:

• Wikigender (http://www.wikigender.org/index.php/New_Home);
• E-agriculture (http://www.e-agriculture.org);
• AIMS (http://aims.fao.org);
• FSN-Forum (http://www.fao.org/fsnforum);
• Open-Development list (http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-development).

This discussion will be facilitated by the International Land Coalitions (ILC) (www.landcoalition.org) Women’s Land Rights team.

The SAVE FOOD initiative is a global effort to reduce food losses and waste estimated at 1.3 billion tonnes of food every year.
One-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption is thrown away or lost, together with the natural resources used for its production. Although food losses occur at all stages of the food supply chain the causes and their impact around the world differ. In developing countries, food losses hit small farmers the hardest. Almost 65 percent of these food losses happen at the production, post harvest, and processing stages. In industrialized countries, food waste often occurs at the retail and consumer level due to a “throw-away” mindset. The SAVE FOOD initiative aims to cut down on food losses and waste to help improve livelihoods and food security for over 900 million hungry people in the world.
With the support of over 50 companies to date, field studies in developing regions are underway to find the best ways to prevent and reduce food losses in food supply chains. In parallel, studies are also being organized to identify and measure the impact of food losses and waste and the effects on food prices worldwide. This will support the design and implementation of cost-effective and sustainable solutions specific to the area.
New technologies, better practices and coordination, and investments in infrastructure – from food production to consumption - are critical to reducing food losses. Similarly, raising awareness on the impact of food waste is important in changing the “throw-away” mindset and setting policy standards.
To join the SAVE FOOD: Global Initiative on Food Losses and Waste Reduction visit www.fao.org/save-food.

FAO, partners, urge greater push to reduce food losses and waste
SAVE FOOD initiative aims to cut food losses, boost sustainability
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/147427/icode/

La FAO y sus socios piden un mayor esfuerzo para reducir las pérdidas y el desperdicio de alimentos
La iniciativa SAVE FOOD apunta a reducir las pérdidas de alimentos e impulsar la sostenibilidad
http://www.fao.org/news/story/es/item/147427/icode/

La FAO et ses partenaires sollicitent un élan majeur pour réduire les pertes et gaspillages alimentaires
L’initiative 'SAVE FOOD': réduire les pertes alimentaires et renforcer la durabilité
http://www.fao.org/news/story/fr/item/147427/icode/

All additional languages:
http://www.fao.org/news/newsroom-home/en/

For further information contact:
Robert van Otterdijk
Rural Infrastructure and Agro-Industries Division (AGS)
FAO HQ, Room B620
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
Rome 00153, Italy
Tel: +39 06 570  53674