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The FAO Country Profiles collects information from the entire FAO website and provides a fast and reliable way to access country-specific information with no need to search through individual databases and systems. It also includes a direct link to the Country website for in-depth information.

While there has been an unprecedented achievement in poverty reduction in the last three decades, eradicating extreme poverty and halving poverty by 2030 are still two of our greatest challenges. Today, about 767 million people continue to live in extreme poverty. Roughly, two thirds of the extreme poor live in rural areas, and the majority are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In the past 30 years, private and public investments in agriculture and rural areas have remained stagnant or have declined in most developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where poverty and hunger are most [...]

The institution of community fisheries (CFi) organizations in Cambodia provides an interesting case for the empowerment of small-scale fisheries. The document pulls together findings from two activities carried out in the context of the development and implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) in Cambodia. These activities aimed at gaining a better understanding of the small-scale fisheries sector in Cambodia in general, with particular emphasis on the functioning of the CFi. Part 1 documents a national consultation process on small-scale fisheries which took place in 2012 [...]

This brief brings together the critical mass of evidence emerging from recent rigorous impact evaluations of government-run cash transfer programmes in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa. These assessments have been developed under the PtoP initiative, led by FAO and UNICEF in partnership with national governments and research organizations.

For smallholder agriculture to prosper and transform itself, access to rural services is essential. Rural services that enable smallholders to overcome constraints to increase their productivity, manage their farms as a sustainable business, link to inputs and outputs markets and act collectively to improve their livelihoods are a first line of action to reduce rural poverty. Undoubtedly, improving rural services has long been on the development agenda. Yet, ensuring equitable access to rural services remains a challenge that governments and their development partners need to address to improve rural livelihoods and overcome rural poverty. The pluralistic Market-Oriented Services (MOS) programme [...]

Social protection plays an important role in protecting poor and vulnerable people from natural hazards saving lives and livelihoods, while also enhancing families’ capacity to cope, respond and withstand threats and crises. Moreover, risk-informed and shock-responsive social protection systems enhance the resilience and decrease the vulnerability of the agricultural livelihoods, absorbing part of the humanitarian caseload. FAO is currently scaling-up its commitment in the field of Risk-Informed and Shock-Responsive Social Protection through evidence generation, policy support, direct implementation in emergency contexts and capacity development. FAO, together with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, is developing an interactive learning tool to [...]

Rural youth are the future of food security and rural poverty reduction. They are also the present as there are more young people today than ever before – 1.8 billion between the ages of 10 and 24 – most of them living in less developed countries and in rural areas. However, youth in rural areas of developing countries face enormous challenges in preparing for and accessing decent work, including in agriculture. These challenges are even greater for youth under the age of 18. Considerable work has been undertaken on understanding the challenges and solutions facing rural youth. However, youth are a heterogenous group, and attention needs [...]

This e-learning course introduces you to the concepts of productive employment and decent work and its relevance for food and nutrition security and rural poverty reduction. The course also provides guidance on how to integrate employment and decent work considerations into agricultural strategies and programmes, with focus on specific groups such as rural women, youth and children in the agricultural sector. Content The course consists of 6 lessons: Lesson 1   Understanding employment and decent work in rural areas: concepts and definitions Lesson 2   The centrality of employment and decent work for agricultural development, poverty reduction and food and nutrition security Lesson 3   Youth [...]

Part I of this year’s edition of the State of Food Insecurity in Europe and Central Asia is devoted to the theme of how the nature of food insecurity has evolved in the region over the past 23 years. The familiar four pillars of food security are used to demonstrate how the character of food insecurity in the region has changed substantially, owing to the pro-poor economic growth observed over the past 23 years, particularly in the poorer countries of the region. Today, the main indicators and issues on household food insecurity concern malnutrition, rather than the physical or economic [...]

This report provides an overview of a study conducted in the NENA region in 2015-2016 in partnership with FAO, CIRAD, CIHEAM-IAMM and six national teams, each of which prepared a national report. In the six countries under review in the NENA region (Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Mauritania, Sudan and Tunisia), agriculture is carried out primarily by small-scale family farmers, the majority of whom run the risk of falling into the poverty trap, largely due to the continuous fragmentation of inherited landholdings. As such, the development of small-scale family farming can no longer be based solely on intensifying agriculture, as the farmers [...]