Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

EVAL-ForwARD is a new Community of Practice on evaluation for Food Security, Agriculture and Rural Development, jointly promoted by the evaluation offices of the Rome-based agencies: CGIAR (formerly known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research), FAO, IFAD and WFP.

Its first public launch took place at EvalColombo2018 during the side event The role of Evaluation in the public sector: how best to support national capacities. Conference participants had the opportunity to engage with the Directors of the Evaluation offices of FAO, IFAD and WFP on the aims, opportunities and thematic focus of this initiative.

The objectives of EVAL-ForwARD are to enhance awareness and capacities at country-level about evaluation in the agriculture, food security and rural development sectors, with a close focus on the evaluation of efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 – End Hunger.

Evaluators, development practitioners, researchers and government officials are welcome to join the Community of Practice and:

• Exchange evaluation information, practice and knowledge;
• Propose resources and blogs;
• Post information about events, conferences, training opportunities.

The first EVAL-ForwARD webinar on Evaluating with a Sustainable Development Goal 2 lens: experiences to date is planned for the second half of October and aims to uncover the challenges encountered and the good practices on which the development community could build, fostering further discussion and exchanges on the topic, which is at the core of the Community’s mandate.

EVAL-ForwARD uses a Dgroup mailing list for knowledge-sharing and a website as a repository of information and resources. To sign up to the Community and to find out more, please visit: www.evalforward.org

Today, the 2017 edition of the State of Food and Agriculture has been released. This year, the theme of the report is “Leveraging food systems for inclusive rural transformation”.

The new report looks at how population growth, increasing urbanization, technologies, and climate change are transforming rural and urban areas, and how the world’s food systems are evolving. The report concludes that fulfilling the 2030 Agenda depends crucially on progress in rural areas, which is where most of the poor and hungry live today, and outlines a strategy for how agriculture and rural economies in developing countries can provide prosperity.  

Please visit the following website to download the report and additional material one of the six UN languages:

http://www.fao.org/state-of-food-agriculture/en/.

12:30 - 14:30 Rome time, FAO Headquarters.

This Special Event will provide government representatives, UN entities, civil society and the private sector and other stakeholders with a platform to share experiences in accelerating progress towards gender equality and rural women’s empowerment. It will highlight forward-looking strategies and partnerships in the fight against hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty.

Rural women play an important role in agriculture and rural development, and make a strong contribution to food security and nutrition at household and community levels. Worldwide, there is an increasing recognition that rural women must be at the centre of any intervention to promote sustainable agriculture and eradicate food insecurity and poverty. The 2030 Agenda envisages a future in which no one is left behind, where achieving gender equality and empowering women is an absolute precondition to break the cycle of poverty and hunger, and to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The event can be followed on webcast: http://www.fao.org/webcast

Programme

Opening remarks

José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO

Presentation on FAO’s technical work on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

Kostas Stamoulis, Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Development Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO

Panel discussion

• His Excellency Hugo Martinez, Minister of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador

• Her Excellency Néziha Labidi, Minister of Women and Family Affairs of Tunisia

• Her Excellency Fatimata Dia Sow, Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender of ECOWAS

• His Excellency Ty Sokhun, Secretary of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Cambodia

• His Excellency Ali Recep Nazli, General Director of Foreign Relations and EU Coordination of Ministry of Food Agriculture and Livestock of Turkey

• Haowa Bello, CEO and Founder of Madame Coquette - Beneficiary of the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme

• Jessica Vega Ortega, Coordinator of the Yani Tundavii Dikuintií Collective of the Network of Young Indigenous Peoples of Latin America, Focal Point for the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus

Questions and answers

Concluding remarks

FAO has just released the Toolkit and E-learning modules on Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture and Food Systems. This integrated package of guidance materials, developed by drawing upon expertise from across the Organisation and of many partners, aims at enhancing capacities for the formulation, implementation and monitoring of nutrition-sensitive food system policies and programmes, in line with the Rome Declaration on Nutrition, the SDGs and UN Decade of Action for Nutrition.

The “Toolkit for Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture and Food Systems” is composed by four tools:

• Key recommendations for improving nutrition through agriculture and food systems
• Designing nutrition-sensitive agriculture investments. Checklist and guidance for programme formulation
• Nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems in practice. Options for intervention
• Compendium of indicators for nutrition-sensitive agriculture.

The E-learning modules on Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture and Food Systems use a scenario-based and experiential learning approach to assist policy makers and programme managers to effectively integrate nutrition in their work.

Two modules are already available on-line:

• Nutrition, Food Security and Livelihoods: Basic concepts
• Improving Nutrition through Agriculture and Food Systems

These resources are freely available and downloadable at

http://www.fao.org/nutrition/policies-programmes/toolkit/en

http://www.fao.org/nutrition/policies-programmes/e-learning/en

TECA (Technologies and practices for small agricultural producers), FAO’s free web based online information and communication platform for smallholders, has launched an online discussion on "Agroecology and Nutrition". The objective of this discussion is to identify successful agroecological farming practices which contribute to nutritious food systems.

Many successful experiences have already been documented on various platforms of FAO, e.g. TECA (during the previous discussions on “Sustainable agriculture through Agroecology” and “Agroecology and Soil Health”) and on Agroecology Knowledge hub. Based on these and other experiences, a three-week discussion will be held, inviting you to share your knowledge and experiences on agroecology and successful agroecological farming practices and approaches.

The discussion page can be accessed through the following link: http://teca.fao.org/discussion/agroecology-and-nutrition

The discussion will be available from 20 March until 12 April 2017.

For any further information please contact: [email protected].

The report The future of food and agriculture: Trends and challenges has been released today.

This new FAO 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.

Please visit the following webpage to download the report and for further information:

http://www.fao.org/publications/fofa/en/

The State of Food and Agriculture 2016 report (SOFA 2016), FAO’s annual flagship publication, has been released yesterday.

SOFA assesses issues on agricultural and rural development in the context of global food security. This year’s SOFA report centres on the double challenge of food security and climate change, presenting alternatives to tackle the two as a whole.

The report and furher information are available in all UN six languages at: http://www.fao.org/publications/sofa/en/

Experiences of multi sectoral policy approaches to promote rural transformation, inclusive agricultural transition and economic growth, across sectors and developing regions will be discussed during an event taking place at FAO headquarters on 17 October from 13:00 to 14:30 CEST.

The structural transformation of economies is a clear pathway out of poverty and hunger when the

process is characterized by inclusive productivity growth in both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors

and by strong linkages between sectors and urban and rural areas.

For further information on this event and on this area of work please contact: [email protected]

In an expert seminar on October 5th 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST, Dr. Douglas Cook, professor at UC Davis and Director of the USAID Innovation Lab for Climate-Resilient Chickpea, will share his decades of experience on legumes in a discussion covering agriculture, nutrition, delivery systems, and meeting the challenge of linking "upstream" science to develop resilient legumes with "downstream" delivery and adoption by farmers.

The seminar is organised by SecureNutrition and aims to engage the agriculture and nutrition community in celebrating the UN International Year of Pulses and to highlight the role pulses play in nutrition and agriculture sustainability.

The event can be joined online here   

To find out more about the event please visit the webpage