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Updates for many countries have made it possible to estimate hunger in the world with greater accuracy this year. In particular, newly accessible data enabled the revision of the entire series of undernourishment estimates for China back to 2000, resulting in a substantial downward shift of the series of the number of undernourished in the world. Nevertheless, the revision confirms the trend reported in past editions: the number of people affected by hunger globally has been slowly on the rise since 2014. The report also shows that the burden of malnutrition in all its forms continues to be a challenge. [...]

This guidance note is designed to assist professionals involve in implementing cash-based interventions (CBIs) that maximize nutrition outcomes, either in humanitarian contexts or embedded within social-protection policies. It can be used by professionals involved in designing and implementing CBIs or related activities to help them integrate nutrition outcomes in their work, and also by those involved in developing nutritional policies and strategies. It presents a brief background to the topic of CBIs, the theoretical framework that supports the linkages between CBIs and nutrition outcomes, a summary of the evidence on the topic, and a practical, step-by-step approach to integrating nutrition [...]

This brochure presents a series of knowledge platforms which make data and information on food and agriculture available, accessible and usable worldwide. This work contributes to the five priorities of FAO to achieve a world without hanger, malnutrition and poverty in a sustainable manner, with a focus on the exchange of knowledge, information and data as a key step towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The evaluation of FAO’s statistical work examines the relevance and the effectiveness of statistics in the era of “leave no one behind”. It appraises the progress made by FAO and the challenges faced in establishing functional statistical governance, providing quality statistics, and adopting sustainable capacity development at the global, regional and country level.The evaluation found that statistics remain core to FAO’s overall work. Members demand for data to support SDG indicator implementation and the use of statistics in policy-making has increased. FAO’s profile has been raised through its methodological work on the SDG indicators and outreach work on national standards.However, [...]

The European Union Land Governance Programme funds 18 individual country-level projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, all of which address tenure issues, and are implemented alongside various partners, among which are government agencies, civil society organizations, bilateral and multilateral organizations and private contractors. All project activities are carried out within the framework of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) and, in the African context, the African Union Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa (AU Declaration) and its Framework and Guidelines on [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic is a health and human crisis threatening the food security and nutrition of millions of people around the world. Hundreds of millions of people were already suffering from hunger and malnutrition before the virus hit and, unless immediate action is taken, we could see a global food emergency. In the longer term, the combined effects of COVID-19 itself, as well as corresponding mitigation measures and the emerging global recession could, without large-scale coordinated action, disrupt the functioning of food systems. Such disruption can result in consequences for health and nutrition of a severity and scale unseen for [...]

This policy brief focuses on the topic of global emergence of infectious diseases and its links with consumption of wild meat, ecosystem disruption, habitat degradation and biodiversity loss. Emerging infectious diseases are a significant and growing threat to global health, economies and security. There is evidence that landscape changes and biodiversity loss are key drivers of the (re-) emergence of infectious diseases. More systematic research is needed to better understand the role of ecosystems in the regulation of diseases. Effective implementation of the One Health approach, promoting coordinated multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary responses, has the potential to reduce disease transmission risks [...]

The spread of COVID-19 has created tremendous uncertainty on a number of fronts, including the availability of food supplies. In such a situation, countries might be prompted to restrict their food exports to ensure greater domestic availability in the short term. However, such restrictions can cause panic, leading to price surges on international markets, and a breakdown of food supply chains. During the food price crisis in 2007–2008, trade restrictions contributed significantly to price spikes for various commodities (45 percent for rice and 30 percent for wheat (Martin & Anderson, 2020). Price volatility led to social unrest in many countries [...]

The Food Systems Dashboard combines data from multiple sources to give users a complete view of food systems. Users can compare components of food systems across countries and regions. They can also identify and prioritize ways to sustainably improve diets and nutrition in their food systems.Dashboards are useful tools that help users visualize and understand key information for complex systems. Users can track progress to see if policies or other interventions are working at a country or regional levelIn recent years, the public health and nutrition communities have used dashboards to track the progress of health goals and interventions, including [...]

Since the declaration by WHO of the COVID-19 as a Global Pandemic on 15 March, governments of the Near East and North Africa region have imposed a series of measures to slow down the spread of the disease. This policy brief aims at summarizing the potential impacts of COVID-19 and associated measures on agriculture and food security in the region and proposes measures to mitigate the impacts on food security and nutrition with special attention to the most vulnerable segments of societies. Ample food supplies exist globally despite COVID-19’s impacts. COVID-19 has considerably disrupted the world supply chains around the world [...]