Country projects
FAO has identified two country projects that are currently being implemented in collaboration with the members of the Alliance and their respective organizations:
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
With the financial support of the Italian Government, the first Government to support the Alliance, FAO is implementing a project to reinforce agricultural production on 150 hectares of land in Bimbo (5 km from the capital Bangui). The land is owned by the Holy See and hosts 3 000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). This inter-religious project will work with Catholics and Muslims to reinforce social cohesion and provide employment opportunities for IDPs and ex-combatants.
COLOMBIA
FAO is responsible for supporting the implementation of the Comprehensive Rural Reform for the realization of peace in the country. FAO has played an important role in supporting the Government in the implementation of integrated rural development. Along with the European Union and La Via Campesina, FAO has been asked by the Government to help implement the Peace Accord 1 on Comprehensive Rural Reform. In Colombia, the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) are the main tool for the implementation of Chapter 1 of the Peace Agreement.
Peace is impossible without food security, and there will be no food security without peace
The 2030 Agenda highlights that there is no peace without sustainable development and that there is no sustainable development without peace. With the advent of the 2030 Agenda, FAO wants to draw the world’s attention to the role of food security and agriculture in preventing conflicts and crises, mitigating their impacts and promoting post-crisis recovery and healing. Ending hunger and malnutrition, addressing humanitarian and protracted crises,preventing and resolving conflicts,and building peace are not separate tasks, but simply different facets of the same challenge. The broad mandate of FAO in the areas of food security and nutrition, agriculture,fisheries and forestry enables the Organization to contribute to a safer and more peaceful world.
Most conflicts mainly affect rural areas and their populations. This is particularly true for civil conflicts,nowadays the most common form of armed conflict. Conflict has strong and unambiguous adverse effects on food security and nutrition. It is the major driver of food in security and malnutrition, both acute and chronic. Conflict has lasting impacts on human development as a result of increased malnutrition, which tends to affect children the most and leave lifelong physical and/or mental disabilities and difficulties.
Causal effects of the conflict and food-security nexus vary across conflict zones, but common features are disruption of food production and food systems, plundering of crops and livestock, and loss of assets and incomes, hence directly and indirectly affecting food access.
Food insecurity can also be a source of conflict. Where it is, it is never the one single factor behind the strife.Causal effects of the conflict and food-security nexus include loss of assets (including land and livestock)and threats to food security (including sudden food-price increases), but in conjunction with other forms of grievance and discontent.
Building resilience through peacebuilding efforts is critical for food security and nutrition. Little is known about how, and to what extent, improved food security could prevent conflict, and build and sustain peace. Yet, depending on context specific conditions, food aid and social protection, as well as helping communities complete harvests,food security tends to contribute significantly to peacebuilding.