FAO has called for immediate global action to address the impending impacts of La Niña. It follows one of the strongest 2023-2024 El Niño climate events on record that affected more than 60 million people worldwide, including severe droughts in Southern Africa.

FAO at UNGA79 will highlight the important roles of food security, nutrition and efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensuring no one is left behind. FAO will discuss the many ways in which prioritizing agrifood systems transformations contributes to ending poverty, improving health and education outcomes, empowering women, ensuring the optimized use of natural resources as well as sustainable consumption and production, creating decent jobs and livelihood opportunities, reducing inequalities and rural-urban disparities, and tackling the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.

The recently released State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 (SOFI) report estimates that 1 out of every 11 people globally faced chronic hunger in 2023. While we at FAO are working diligently with our partners to address the root causes of the issue of persistently (and unacceptably) high levels of global hunger and malnutrition, drivers like conflicts and climate change are unwieldy topics that may seem beyond the ability for each of us as to positively impact.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, launched the first ISAVET program in South Sudan attended by key stakeholders. This on-the-job training  addresses critical skills identified through assessments needed to effectively conduct surveillance and intervention to animal diseases at the local level, focusing on improving surveillance through disease detection, reporting and response.

The Government of the United States of America contributed USD 4 274 670 to FAO’s project entitled “Sustainable Operationalization of One Health in the Africa Region”. The project’s objective was to build stronger and more sustainable animal health systems across Africa by establishing One Health coordination mechanisms with functioning biosafety and biosecurity capacities in veterinary laboratories. The project advanced the implementation of biorisk mitigation strategies in Africa through the development and application of the new FAO Biorisk Assessment Tool. Among other results, it demonstrated the benefits and effectiveness of investing in One Health approaches through cost–benefit and cost–effectiveness analyses.

The G20 can make a significant contribution to global food security by promoting market transparency, refraining from adopting trade restrictions, and revitalizing agricultural negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Director-General of FAO QU Dongyu told a G20 meeting of agriculture ministers in Brazil.

Guinea experienced its first outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in 2022. The urgency to control the outbreak was heightened by a risk analysis indicating a high probability of disease spread due to inadequate biosecurity measures along the value chain. Upon confirmation of the HPAI virus by the Central Veterinary Laboratory – which was fully renovated and equipped by the FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD), with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – comprehensive containment measures were implemented in support of veterinary services. 

The spread of conflict, access challenges and widespread flooding are severely hampering the emergency response efforts of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations across the country, FAO warns.

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, today called for greater cooperation within the G20 family of nations as global hunger targets remain worryingly out of reach. In his opening address to G20 Agriculture Working Group (AWG) Ministerial Meeting in Chapada dos Guimarães, Brazil, Qu reminded the audience that 733 million people globally continue to face hunger, meaning the world is still far off track from achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger).

The Government of the United States of America, through USAID, contributed USD 6.5 million to the FAO project, "2023 Emergency Livelihood Response Programme (ELRP) in South Sudan", which was implemented from 27 March 2023 to 28 March 2024. The project aimed to protect the livelihoods of South Sudan's most vulnerable communities, enhance food production and strengthen resilience. The project successfully reached 246 537 households (1 479 222 people), including 130 462 headed by women, through the distribution of emergency agricultural kits, training on agricultural and fish production practices, animal health services and the dissemination of timely food security and nutrition information.

In Washington, D.C. for the first time since her appointment as Secretary of Codex Alimentarius Commission, Dr. Sarah Cahill emphasized the need to ensure Codex continues to develop science-based standards that protect consumer health and facilitate fair trade in the context of a changing global environment.  

This week, Rein Paulsen, Director of FAO’s Office of Emergencies and Resilience, along with Adoniram Sanches, FAO’s Subregional Coordinator for Mesoamerica, visited Haiti to support the incoming FAO Representative, Pierre Vauthier in bolstering international cooperation and rising awareness on the dire humanitarian situation on the ground. 

FAO, in Sierra Leone through its Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD), in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) conducted various refresher trainings for Field Animal Health personnel and Community Animal Health Workers across the 15 agricultural districts in Sierra Leone. These trainings aimed to enhance the skills of animal health workers in disease surveillance, reporting, and overall disease management, using a One Health approach.

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The Government of the United States of America contributed USD 150 250 000 million to the FAO project, "Providing emergency life-saving food and livelihood support to drought-affected communities in Somalia", which was implemented from 4 May 2022 to 31 March 2024.

The benchmark for world food commodity prices declined marginally in August, as decreases in quotations for sugar, meat and cereals outweighed increases in those for vegetable oils and dairy products, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported Friday. The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a set of globally-traded food commodities, averaged 120.7 points in August, slightly down from its revised July figure and 1.1 percent below its corresponding value in August 2023.

 “Celebrating Codex Alimentarius: A U.S.-EU Commitment to Safe Food” took place on 5 September at the French Embassy to the United States of America. The unprecedented gathering was jointly organized by the United States, the European Union, France, and Germany to provide a platform for the transatlantic partners to reflect on their collaboration and reaffirm their commitment to upholding international food safety standards.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP), is partnering with the Government of Uganda to host a National Workshop on Bioethanol for Clean Cooking. This workshop set on 12 September 2024 in Kampala, Uganda, is a key component of the GBEP-led project, “International Dialogues on Bioethanol as a Clean Cooking Fuel in Selected Countries in Africa and Asia,” with Uganda being one of the prioritized pilot countries. The upcoming national workshop, endorsed by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development of Uganda (MEMD) and with funding support from the United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS), aims to build consensus and knowledge on the viability and sustainability of bioethanol as a clean cooking fuel.

In the small village of Betano, nestled in the lush landscapes of central Timor-Leste, a simple dispute over a humble legume has caused a quiet revolution to take root.It all started in 2019, when the women in the village became interested in piloting climate-smart agriculture techniques, and in particular conservation agriculture, which were being promoted in the area by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

To improve the quality of services in the diagnosis of animal diseases, food quality control and the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the National Agricultural Development Support Laboratory (LANADA) received funding from the World Bank for the renovation of its laboratories. To implement this programme, the LANADA requested FAO ECTAD's technical assistance from laboratory experts to assess the ongoing renovation and assess the state of operation of the regional laboratories.