FAO.org

Sustainable Development Goal 1, ending poverty in all its forms, everywhere, is the most ambitious goal set by the 2030 Agenda. This Goal includes eradicating extreme poverty in the next 12 years, which will require more focused actions in addition to broad-based interventions. The question is: How can we achieve target 1.1 and overcome the many challenges that lie ahead? By gaining a deeper understanding of poverty, and the characteristics of the extreme rural poor in particular, the right policies can be put in place to reach those most in need. This report presents the contribution that agriculture, food systems [...]

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) make a significant contribution to growth and socio-economic development in countries and regions around the globe. The widespread adoption and integration of ICTs has reduced information and transaction costs, improved service delivery, created new jobs, generated new revenue streams, and helped conserve resources. ICTs have also transformed the way businesses, people and governments work, interact, and communicate.  ICT innovation is also revolutionizing the agriculture and food sectors. In developed economies, innovations such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of things, data analytics and block-chain are changing the way agriculture does business. Remote sensors collect data on soil [...]

With the aim of eradicating poverty and hunger, FAO provides countries with evidence-based policy support to design social protection programmes that are nutrition-sensitive, risk-informed and shock-responsive, and advocates to expand social protection coverage to poor and vulnerable rural people. FAO, together with its main partner UNICEF, has been generating evidence on the productive impacts of social protection in rural areas and supporting the design of broader rural development strategies  that combine social protection programmes and agricultural interventions.  This flyer presents success stories from Zambia and Lesotho, showing how social protection can change the life of rural people, lifting them out [...]

For the third year in a row, hunger is on the rise again and affects 821 million people in the world. In addition, one third of the global population suffers from malnutrition. Eradicating hunger and malnutrition by 2030 requires strategies, public policies, national laws and programs that guarantee the right to adequate food for everyone, contribute to reducing poverty and improve people’s diets according to each country’s specific context. This publication presents the structural causes of hunger and malnutrition and introduces FAO’s framework of action to achieve a solid political commitment and design long-term legal strategies to achieve Zero Hunger. [...]

This document summarizes the online discussion Eradicating extreme poverty: What is the role of agriculture? which was held on the FAO Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum) from 3 to 24 April 2018. The discussion was facilitated by Ana Paula de la O Campos and Maya Takagi of FAO. This online discussion was part of a broader reflection on the part of FAO towards refining and improving its approach to the eradication of extreme poverty, by using its experience in supporting the development of agriculture and the livelihoods of rural dwellers towards the realization of SDG1. Over [...]

The implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda is just at the onset. Pursuing the wide and ambitious Sustainable Development Objectives (SDGs) poses major challenges at all levels, from the sub-national, to the regional and the international level, and calls for a timely decision of effective policy actions in a quickly-evolving world of scarce resources. In this context, the ability to design sound policies and monitor their outcomes is a key requirement. Measuring progress towards international goals and their national and subnational specifications is of paramount importance.  This pocketbook presents, at a glance, selected key indicators on agriculture and food security, [...]

Drawing on two school feeding programmes in Mozambique, this study shows how policy reforms need to be aligned legally for successful implementation. It also argues that pilot initiatives can inform the adaptations needed within institutional frameworks.

This publication provides a list of food system-based intervention options to improve nutrition and a set concrete entry points for maximizing the impact of each intervention. Developed through leveraging different expertise in FAO, it is a key resource to assist professionals involved in different areas - from breeding to production; from food transformation and packaging to transportation and trade; from marketing and value chain to food safety; from food labelling to consumer education - to u nderstand the linkages with nutrition, and to increase their contribution for a world free from malnutrition in all its forms.Also Available in Spanish French [...]

While countries in Europe and Central Asia have made significant progress reducing the prevalence of undernourishment, 14.3 million people still experience severe food insecurity. Malnutrition – in one or more of its three main forms – is present throughout the region. Demand for food is growing, consumption patterns are changing and urbanization is accelerating. The effects of climate change pose considerable challenges to agricultural production. The Sustainable Development Goals provide a fra mework for assessing and tackling these challenges and monitoring progress. Currently only a few countries have policy frameworks that address all four pillars of food security – availability, [...]

Family farming remains the predominant form of agriculture in Asia and the Pacific. There are more than 570 million farms in the world of which over 500 million are family-owned. They are responsible for at least 56 percent of agricultural production. These smallholder resource-poor farmers are confronted by many challenges – the negative impact of climate change, increased frequency of natural disasters, loss of biodiversity, crude oil price hikes, rapid expansion of bioenergy development, incr easing food price volatility, inefficient supply chains and others. The information needs of farmers will only increase as they have to make more and more [...]