FAO in Geneva

Publications

We depend on bees and other pollinators for our existence. They play a vital role in agriculture and global ecosystems by maintaining our food supply and contributing to biodiversity and other ecosystem services. The vast majority of pollinators are wild, including over 20 000 species of bees and many types of butterflies, birds, bats and other insects. However, in many areas, bees, pollinators, and many other insects are declining in abundance and diversity. Most of these drivers are human-induced. The celebration of World Bee Day on 20 May presents an opportunity to call for global cooperation and solidarity to ensure that we prioritize efforts to protect bees and other pollinators, thereby mitigating threats posed to food security and agricultural livelihoods and defending against biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. World Bee Day is also an occasion to raise awareness of how everyone can make a difference to support, restore and enhance the role of pollinators.
Measures adopted around the world to contain the COVID-19 outbreak helped curb the spread of the virus and lowered the pressure on health systems. However, they also affected the global trading system, and the supply and demand of agricultural and food products. In response to concerns over food security and food safety worldwide, many countries reacted immediately to apply policy measures aiming to limit potentially adverse impacts on domestic markets. Covering the first half of 2020, the report provides an overview of short-term changes in trade patterns and policy measures related to agricultural trade that countries adopted in response to the pandemic.
Monitoring and analysing food and agriculture policies and their effects is crucial to support decision makers in developing countries to shape better policies that drive agricultural and food systems transformation. This report is a technical analysis of government spending data on food and agriculture during 2004–2018 in 13 sub-Saharan African countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. It analyses the level of public expenditure, including budget execution, source of funding and decentralized spending, as well as the composition of expenditure, including on producer or consumer support, research and development, infrastructure and more to reveal the trends and challenges that countries are facing. It also delves into the relationship between the composition of public expenditure and agricultural performance.
The findings of the fifth edition of the Global Report on Food Crises make grim reading. The number of people facing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent food, nutrition and livelihoods assistance is on the rise. Conflict is the main reason, combined with climate disruption and economic shocks, aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Conflict and hunger are mutually reinforcing. We need to tackle hunger and conflict together to solve either. They cannot be resolved separately. Hunger and poverty combine with inequality, climate shocks and tensions over land and resources to spark and drive conflict. Likewise, conflict forces people to leave their homes, land and jobs. It disrupts agriculture and trade, reduces access to vital resources like water and electricity, and so drives hunger and famine.
Parliamentary action is fundamental to securing the right to adequate food for all. Parliamentarians guide and oversee public-sector policies and budget allocations towards transforming food systems that deliver healthy diets for all. The emergence of COVID-19 has shown the weakness in our food systems. Within three months of COVID-19’s arrival, disruptions were seen in all aspects of the food system-production, harvesting, transportation, processing, retailing and consumption – affecting the livelihoods and increasing the risk of pushing millions into a state of food insecurity and poverty. Governments should establish coordination and other measures and mechanisms to stabilize and restore food availability, accessibility and affordability for all people, especially the most vulnerable, to ensure their food security and nutrition, during and after the pandemic. Our vision for this handbook is to provide parliamentarians with practical guidance to support legislative processes that prioritize nutrition, and - together with governments, other international organizations, civil society and other stakeholders – accelerate progress towards the SDGs.