News archive 2020

FAO Director-General highlights COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme and calls for enabling multi-sectoral policies, innovation, well targeted investments, and vital agricultural activity

The new initiative aims to improve the livelihoods and well-being of urban and peri-urban populations in at least 100 cities (15 metropolitan, 40 intermediary and 45 small cities) around the world in the next three years.

Worldwide, those hardest hit include the urban poor, informal workers and pastoral communities as well as people who are already particularly vulnerable - children, women, the elderly, the sick and people with disabilities," the FAO Director-General said.

Anyone anywhere can access multidimensional maps and statistics showing key climate and environmental trends wherever they are, thanks to a new tool developed by Google and FAO. Earth Map launched today.

The world was already off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and the COVID-19 pandemic has made it even harder both to achieve the Goals and to monitor progress where it is being made, according to FAO's new report, “Tracking progress on food and agriculture-related SDG indicators 2020”.

The Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) today held a high-level event to present a review of the most recent global data on how the knock-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are driving up acute hunger in vulnerable countries already wracked by food crises even before COVID-19 arrived.

Through the Hand-in-Hand initiative, the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme and other actions, FAO can help ensure well-functioning global food markets, promote responsible investments, and reduce food loss and waste, among other areas

Innovation, solidarity, coherence and strong partnership among and within countries of Asia and the Pacific are required for the region to rebound from the damage caused by COVID-19 and the ongoing effects of chronic undernourishment.

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks the international prices of the most commonly traded food commodities, averaged 96.1 points in August, up 2.0 percent from the previous month and reaching its highest level since February 2020.

On the third day of the FAO Regional Conference for Asia-Pacific, the FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, Government Ministers as well as civil society and private sector representatives voiced concern over COVID-19’s impacts on the food security and livelihoods of millions of people, and urged for greater action to overcome the food and agriculture challenges facing the region.