Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the University of Évora present the

SALSA Project Final Conference

Can small farms and food businesses improve people’s access to more and better food in our globalized world?

Thursday, 25 June 2020 from 10:00 to 11:00 and from 11:30 to 13:00 (CET)

Please register to follow the virtual event through the Zoom conferencing platform.

The webcast will be streamed live on YouTube in English.

For more information click here.

The Research and Extension Unit (AGDR) of FAO participates in SALSA – Small Farms, Small Food Businesses and Sustainable Food Security, an EU-funded research project of the Horizon2020 program which run from April 2016 to July 2020 with the aim to provide a better understanding of the role of small farms and small food businesses in meeting the sustainable food and nutrition security (FNS) challenge.

SALSA – Small Farms, Small Food Businesses and Sustainable Food Security, is an EU-funded research project of the Horizon2020 program which run from April 2016 to July 2020 with the aim to provide a better understanding of the role of small farms and small food businesses in meeting the sustainable food and nutrition security (FNS) challenge. SALSA pioneered a novel integrated multimethod approach in 30 regions across 19 countries in Europe and Africa using the most recent satellite technologies, transdisciplinary approaches, food systems mapping and participatory foresight analysis.

The Final Conference will take place on 25 June 2020 and will be divided into two main parts:

Part A – 10:00 – 11:00 (CET)

Overview and highlights of main results from the SALSA project

The first part of the Conference aims to summarise and illustrate SALSA’s main results including:

• new concepts and theory developed by the project with respect to small farms and food businesses;
• the validated SALSA methodology, used for identification of small farms crop types, crop area and production estimates, as well as regular monitoring of small farms’ production;
• the novel typology of small farms identified and their importance within food systems;
• Food systems’ maps which unveil the role of small farms and their market linkages within the food systems.

Part B – 11:30 – 13:00 (CET)

Enabling governance and policy recommendations for small farms and small food business

SALSA has aimed to contribute to strengthen the role of small farms and small food business in regional food systems.

This second part of the Conference highlights two of the main SALSA’s contributions in this regard:

• the identification and characterisation of enabling governance frameworks for small farms and small food business;
• tailored and fit-for-purpose multilevel policy recommendations.
• These are particularly crucial in the midst of relevant processes of policy reform in the European Union (CAP and its National Strategic Plans, ‘Farm to Fork’ and ‘Biodiversity’ new strategies, EU-Africa Strategy), as well as in the frame of the current COVID-19 crisis and its impacts on the food system.

The two sessions will welcome the active participation and questions from the audience.

The Programme of the Conference and the bios of the speakers are also available at this link

The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has launched a survey to collect experiences and good practices in the use and application of the CFS Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (CFS-FFA).



This survey complements an earlier call for inputs issued in March 2019 and will contribute to monitoring progress on the use and application of the CFS-FFA, both from a qualitative and quantitative perspective.

The survey is available in English, French and Spanish and you are welcome to provide your answers in any of the six UN languages. Deadline is the 30 April 2020.

For additional information, please contact [email protected].

Evaluation criteria: what's new and what changes for agriculture and food security?



12 February 2020

15:00 - 16:00 Central Europe Time



Speaker: Megan G. Kennedy-Chouane, Senior Policy Analyst, OECD

Facilitator: Rachel Sauvinet Bedouin, Senior Evaluation Officer, FAO

The evaluation criteria first set out by the OECD Development Assistance Committee in 1991 have recently been revised. In this webinar, you will learn about the new definitions, the significance of the changes and the new coherence criteria. Examples from evaluations of projects and programmes in agriculture, food security and nutrition will be discussed. There will be time to have your questions answered and share ideas on how the revised criteria can improve the practice of evaluation.

This webinar is organised by the EvalForward Community of Practice www.evalforward.org 

If interested in participating please contact [email protected]