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Parliamentary action is critical to securing the right to adequate food and transforming food systems that deliver healthy diets for all. Food security and nutrition indicators tend to show significant improvement when there is strong political will informing public policies and programmes anchored in legislation. FAO, through its Partnerships and UN Collaboration Division, seeks partnership and closer collaboration with parliamentarians, considering these relationships as key to its work on meeting mutual commitments on food and nutrition security, including the right to adequate food. In line with the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-2031, which seeks to support the 2030 Agenda through the [...]

This Manual was developed to guide how to develop and implement a National Plan of Action for Small-Scale Fisheries (NPOA-SSF). These processes are unique because they ensure that the voices and concerns of small-scale fisheries are heard and allow them to actively participate in decision-making processes that shape their lives and livelihoods. In doing so, implementing an NPOA-SSF is an effective way to align legal frameworks with the provisions of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication. These Guidelines unite social development with responsible fisheries, addressing the marginalization and vulnerability [...]

La plaine de Berrechid – connue comme le « grenier » du Maroc – a connu une intensification désordonnée de l’irrigation au cours des deux dernières décennies. Malgré les gains économiques immédiats, ce processus a provoqué la surexploitation de la nappe aquifère de Berrechid, dont plus de 95% de l’eau pompée est destinée à l’agriculture. En 2011, l’Agence du Bassin Hydraulique du Bouregreg et de la Chaouia (ABH-BC) – une division gouvernementale supervisant l’utilisation de l’eau dans les régions du Bouregreg et de la Chaouia, qui comprend l’aquifère de Berrechid – a commencé à négocier un accord de gouvernance de l’eau [...]

Transforming agrifood systems depends crucially on how people can promote and benefit from innovation in governance. Fresh ways to look at policy dialogues and decision-making processes can help societies rapidly face interconnected challenges such as food insecurity and malnutrition, conflicts and the climate crisis. FAO promotes governance innovation to support countries in adopting the best-tailored strategies to pursue a sustainable, efficient, inclusive and resilient agrifood systems transformation. - In Indonesia, FAO has helped the government rethink its national strategic planning by using innovative analysis and modelling and supporting continuous consultation of actors at national and decentralized levels. - In Uganda, FAO has helped [...]

This policy brief provides a summary of water governance analysis undertaken in collaboration with national stakeholders. These include the Ministry of Energy and Water (MoEW) and the Beirut and Mount Lebanon Water Establishment (BMLWE), as part of the project “Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Water Efficiency/Productivity and Water Sustainability in NENA Countries” under the FAO Regional Initiative on Water Scarcity in the Near East and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The analysis, which will be summarized in a report (Gharios and Tanios, forthcoming), followed the governance framework described in the FAO paper “Focus on governance for [...]

The Global Parliamentary Pact against Hunger and Malnutrition 2023 is the outcome of the Second Global Parliamentary Summit against Hunger and Malnutrition, held in Chile on 15-16 June 2023.

In 2017, FAO launched its Global Capacity Development Programme to support the implementation of the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter, and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing (PSMA) and complementary international instruments, regional mechanisms and tools to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The programme aims to contribute to national, regional and global efforts to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing. For the proper implementation of the programme, FAO developed its fisheries training framework, based on a modular approach, which has been invaluable in harmonizing the courses delivered under the programme. This modular approach also provides [...]

Farmers feed the world, by producing the food on which we all depend. Since farmers are the developers and custodians of crop diversity in the field, their rights in this regard are critical to maintain their pivotal role in providing food security and nutrition – never more so than in the current era of climate change and other major challenges facing humanity. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources (International Treaty) is the first legally binding international agreement to formally recognize the contribution of local and Indigenous communities and farmers to the conservation and development of plant genetic resources for [...]

Tenure rights are crucial to the livelihoods of people as they define who can use which natural resources, for how long, and under which conditions. Tenure of natural resources is also essential for environmental sustainability and increased resilience and for enabling farmers to access other services. As the world population continues to grow and climate change reduces the availability of natural resources, increasing conflicts over land, and land deterioration are negatively affecting rural livelihoods on an unprecedented scale. In particular, women often have much weaker tenure rights than men, and they suffer discrimination by social customs, as well as by [...]

In 2014, the first internationally negotiated instrument dealing specifically with artisanal and small-scale fisheries known as the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) was endorsed. The scope of the SSF Guidelines is to promote globally a human rights-based approach, covering every social and economic aspect of fisheries governance relevant to all activities undertaken by men and women, in marine and inland waters fisheries value chains. To support and promote the implementation of this important instrument, systematic monitoring is needed in accordance with the provisions in paragraph 13.4, calling [...]