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This report presents insights and emerging lessons on food systems governance from the experience of nine cities that have developed urban food interventions – Baltimore, Belo Horizonte, Lima, Medellín, Nairobi, Quito, Seoul, Shanghai and Toronto – and draws on diverse sources of secondary information regarding the experiences of other cities throughout the world. It highlights entry points for the governance of urban food systems issues; common procedural and content-related considerations when addressing those issues; predominant governance models; and operational opportunities for future investment. Successful examples can encourage other local governments to adapt new approaches and innovate within their own context. Every [...]

This document summarizes the online discussion 'Improving communications for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Africa: How should we move forward?' held on the FAO Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum) from 2 to 30 June 2020. The discussion was facilitated by Scott Newman of FAO’s Regional Office for Africa in Accra, Ghana.The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through the misuse of antimicrobial drugs is complicating the management of many infectious diseases, thus endangering animal health and welfare as well as food production. The complexity of the AMR crisis and antimicrobial pollution requires a coordinated and integrated [...]

This third edition of the State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries provides a comprehensive overview of the status of fisheries in the region, looking at their main features and trends, in order to better inform their management and better examine current and future challenges that they will face in the near future. The aim of this report is to produce a document that could provide useful analysis and direction for decision-making and future action. In this respect, this publication also represents a convenient source of information for the FAO Committee on Fisheries and offers a practical complement to the [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified development challenges across Europe and Central Asia, generating ever more demand for rapid, accessible and reliable data to guide decision-making. The evolving pandemic and associated economic crisis are impacting food security and jeopardizing countries’ progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Identifying and evaluating the multi-faceted impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on the food security situation requires real-time, quality information that enables the measurement of changes in people’s access to food and an assessment of the underlying causes.See the full list of policy briefs related to COVID-19.

There were seven confirmed local cases of COVID-19 in Beijing on 11 and 12 June 2020. Epidemiological investigations confirmed that all cases were related to the Beijing Xinfadi Agricultural Produce Wholesale Market. The market supplies 80 percent of Beijing’s demand for agricultural products. Notably, it accounts for roughly 70 percent of Beijing’s market for vegetables. On 13 June, the Xinfadi market and some other markets with COVID-19 cases connected with Xinfadi were temporarily closed. Measures including nucleic acid testing, environment sampling, isolation of close contacts and closed management (controlled entry and exit) of the relevant communities were implemented. Meanwhile, to [...]

The 2018-drought directly affected more than two-thirds of Afghanistan (22 out of total 34 provinces) with around 10.5 million people being most severely affected (of the total 17 million in these 22 provinces). 13.5 million people were facing “Crisis” or worse levels of food insecurity in September 2018 and at least 300,000 people internally displaced due to drought. This was one of the most severe droughts in recent times in Afghanistan. Several strands of scientific analyses and experiential evidence from Afghanistan indicate the increasing frequency, scale, duration, and impacts of drought in the country; a trend that is set to [...]

This document summarizes the online discussion Near-real-time monitoring of food crisis risk factors for improved early warning early action, held at the FAO Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum) from 16 September to 18 October 2020. The discussion was facilitated by Betina Dimaranan of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).This online discussion followed up on a recent Food Security Portal webinar that took stock of the advances in tools and approaches for real-time monitoring of food crisis risk factors in early warning early action systems. The discussion was one [...]

This report presents and reflects on the opportunities that new technological developments related to automation and precision agriculture (e.g. robotics) can offer to agriculture in developing countries. These technologies are mainly targeted to support farmers that struggle with the cost of labour when harvesting crops and to tackle the declining availability of manpower for general cropping operations. This report also explores the possible applications of agricultural technology, presents the current trends and discusses some of the principle challenges to successful adoption for sustainable agricultural mechanization in developing countries.

This action sheet is part of a series of action sheets developed under the seven key priority areas of the FAO COVID-19 Response and Recovery programme, the FAO umbrella programme designed to proactively and sustainably address the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic. Each action sheet includes a project proposal in support of countries most in need for which FAO is leveraging high-level political, financial and technical expertise. All action sheets are gathered on the Food Coalition web hub, where members of the Coalition - a multi-stakeholder global alliance for a unified global action in response to COVID-19 - can access the [...]

This Practical Handbook is directed to Members of Parliament and Parliamentary Advisors, who are considered “change agents”. It provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of the role that Parliamentarians can play in the creation of reliable, coherent, and transparent “enabling environments” in the range of areas related to investment in agriculture and food systems.The Handbook does so, not through a catalog of prescriptions, but through guidance notes, examples of good practices, and very practical indications. It does not aim to provide a blueprint to be implemented by each Parliament but rather it sets out key stages of processes and mechanisms [...]