On 13 March 2023, FAO’s Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division, Regional Office for Africa, and Development Law Service addressed the Gender Committee of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) to highlight key legal challenges to gender equality in agrifood systems and provide recommendations for the development of a new model law.  Proposal of a model law on gender equality in agrifood systems comes as part of an ongoing collaboration between FAO and PAP to develop regional framework laws to improve food security and nutrition in Africa. FAO and PAP have had a Memorandum of Understanding in place since 2016 under the...

Presidents and parliamentarians from eleven Central African countries came together in a meeting that was held over two days (27 and 28 February 2023), and back-to-back with the third international conference of the Network of Parliamentarians for the Sustainable Management of Central African Forest Ecosystems. Taking stock of the progress made in pursuing the network's objectives and renewing its political commitment, discussions included an assessment of the food and nutrition situation in Central Africa, the role of parliaments in promoting...

Addressing the 350 participants of the joint conferences of the Presidents of the Parliamentary Alliances of Central Africa and the International Conference of Parliamentarians on the Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystems in Central Africa, FAO Chief Scientist, Ismahane Elouafi, reminded the Assembly that, according to predictions, the world is still far from achieving the goal of ending hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. With only seven years to go, the African continent, in particular the Central African sub-region, is still far from meeting the United Nations’ 2030 deadline for reaching Zero Hunger. The latest data suggests that severe...

Rome – A delegation from the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) visited FAO Headquarters on the 13 and 14 December 2022 to discuss FAO support for a series of new model laws under consideration by the African nations.  The meetings in Rome follow the PAP’s...

08 December 2022, Addis Ababa - The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) has adopted the Model Law on Food and Nutrition Security in Africa.  The adoption of this model law comes at an opportune time in the year 2022, the Year of Nutrition and Food Security, as declared by the African Union Assembly. With its conceptual roots in the African Union Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the model law is...