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The 21st century faces multiple and complex challenges. The new 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda galvanizes and commits the International community to act together to surmount them and trasform our world for today's and future generations. 

This brochure describes FAO's area of work on on facilitating the implementation of Article 14 of CEDAW for rural women's empowerment and food security under Strategic Objective 1 implemented by the Cross Cutting Theme on Gender. The brochure contains a rational for why it is important to address gender inequalities for food security and nutrition through political commitment and by incorporating the perspective of gender equality and the empowerment of rural women in sectoral and cross-sectoral policies and strategies. It then describes what FAO can do to support its Member Countries to comply with CEDAW and thus to formulate gender-equitable [...]

Uganda is putting significant efforts toward addressing the constraints responsible for its low agricultural productivity, which affects farmers’ incomes and therefore, their food security. The biggest developments are being seen in improving the added value of its production, as well as in supporting strategic commodities such as livestock and rice. 

The National Inputs Voucher Scheme (NAIVS) will be ending at the close of this cropping year (2013/2014). NAIVS provided access to fertilizer and seeds through subsidized input packages for maize and rice. The Big Results Now (BRN) initiative was launched in 2013, which aims to modernize the agriculture sector by promoting public-private partnership and mainstream market oriented measures.

In Senegal, the government has given great importance and priority to the development and promotion of national rice production to achieve self-sufficiency by 2017. Besides, emphasis has been placed on risk management with the creation of the National Agricultural Insurance Company (CNAAS) and several plans dedicated to flood and water management.

In reaction to weather and market induced food price crises, the government has implemented various measures targeting maize in order to combat low production and high prices such as the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) in 2005/06, export bans in 2005/06, 2008/09 and 2012/13, private domestic trade bans in 2006 and 2008, and import restrictions throughout the entire period under review.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on reducing poverty have been met by many countries, yet many others lag behind and the post-2015 challenge will be the full eradication of poverty and hunger. Many developing countries increasingly recognize that social protection measures are needed to relieve the immediate deprivation of people living in poverty and to prevent others from falling into poverty when a crisis strikes. This edition of The State of Food and Agriculture 2015 makes the case that social protection measures will help break the cycle of rural poverty and vulnerability, when combined with broader agricultural and rural development measures.  [...]

The present document reviews and assesses the recent and ongoing initiatives dedicated to monitoring and analysing Public Expenditure in support of Agriculture (PEA) in Africa. This document fills a gap and responds to the need of policy-makers and policy analysts in Africa for a detailed and analytical review of what exists in terms of PEA monitoring and analysis in Africa. The objective of the present review is thus to: (i) shed light on PEA monitoring and analysis initiatives in Africa: not only their method and definition of agriculture, but also their nature, objectives, scope, current status, and most importantly their [...]

West African Agriculture is at a turning point. The combination of strong demand growth, sustained economic growth, higher global agricultural prices, and an improved policy environment has generated the most conducive conditions for Agricultural growth in over 30 years. West African countries and their Development Partners now clearly recognize the sector’s vital importance for broad-based growth, food security, improved nutrition and poverty reduction. At the same time, a combination of old and new challenges ranging from climate change to increased price volatility threaten the ability of West Africans to seize these opportunities. In view of the challenges and opportunities facing [...]

This publication presents the linkages and synergies between social protection and nutrition in the food and agriculture and proposes recommendations for maximizing the nutritional impact of social protection programmes. The target audience includes professionals working in social protection who wish to know more about how nutrition relates to their work, as well as nutrition experts who wish to know how social protection can contribute to improving nutrition.