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The paper discusses the role that social protection can play in saving livelihoods while also enhancing the capacity of households to respond, cope and withstand threats and crises. The paper builds on FAO Social Protection Framework (FAO, 2017) and focuses on the role of social protection systems in humanitarian contexts, with a closer look at protracted crises and a discussion on the importance of shock-sensitive and responsive systems, even in stable contexts. The paper acknowledges that strengthening resilience at national and community levels requires a multisector approach, where risk-informed social protection interventions, including cash transfers, can become a critical component.The paper [...]

FAO helps countries achieve SDG1 (No poverty) and SDG2 (Zero hunger) by improving the livelihoods of poor and extreme poor rural people, including smallholders and family farmers.

The document follows the agenda of the workshop. It starts with a background description of the situation that has lead to the organization of the technical event. It sets the scene presenting the FAO's strategy on Rural Poverty Reduction and on Social Protection. It starts then with the policy review and the national Priorities presenting the learnings from the Republic of Egypt, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The second part treats the expanding of Social Protection to Rural Areas, presenting the experiences from Leabnon and the expansion of universal health to rural areas. The [...]

Why a game on social protection? This interactive tool facilitates learning on the potential benefits and tradeoffs in linking social protection, resilience and climate change policies at local, national and global level. The tool allows national stakeholders and policymakers to experience first-hand the challenges that smallholder farmers face when dealing with scarce availability of productive assets and deteriorating climate conditions.  This will help participants be better equipped to solve complex problems related to social protection, climate change issues and resilience in an uncertain world. The tool captures the essence of reallife complexity simulating struggles and threats faced by smallholder farmers. It forces participants to make decisions that will have consequences; and with that [...]

This Regional Gender Strategy is designed to enable FAO RNE officers and country officers in the region as well as development practitioners to respond to current regional priorities. As a complement to the FAO Gender Equality Policy, the regional gender strategy will promote coherence and improve efficiency of gender-sensitive programming. The strategy supports the development of easy and efficient approaches and methodologies to adequately address the needs of the different stakeholders and specific groups, particularly the most invisible and under-considered ones among women, men, youth as well as understand the different interactions or synergies. It is aligned with global FAO [...]

This brief brings together the critical mass of evidence emerging from recent rigorous impact evaluations of government-run cash transfer programmes in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa. These assessments have been developed under the PtoP initiative, led by FAO and UNICEF in partnership with national governments and research organizations.

The brief aims at summarizing the efforts of FAO to maximize the impacts of social protection interventions in the Sahel and West Africa by strengthening the linkages with resilience, food security, nutrition and economic growth; ensuring the effective reach of most vulnerable households and making national social protection programmes risk-informed and shock-responsive.

Rural women make up the majority of food producers in the world, and they are vital to the wellbeing of their families and communities. Yet, in many parts of the world, women face multiple forms of discrimination that affect their potential. They often have less access to resources and fewer opportunities to participate in decision-making processes. The gender and food security policy domains are generally disconnected: food security and nutrition objectives are rarely reflected in gender-related policies, and gender equality concerns are often missing in food security and nutrition policies. This gender guidance note seeks to facilitate policy dialogue on [...]

Social protection is a key strategy in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. By addressing the underlying causes of hunger, social protection programmes can enhance households’ food consumption along with their ability to produce food and augment income. In the absence of social protection, the food-insecure are often forced to cope in ways that further increase their vulnerability and undermine their future income. The extension of social protection to these population groups is critical; however, the depth of its impacts depends on how programmes are designed and implemented. This social protection guidance note supports policy dialogue by considering different programming [...]

This introductory note provides the background to the FIRST Policy Guidance Notes series and comprises three sections. Section 1 describes the rationale of the guidelines; section 2 introduces the different guidance notes included in the guidelines and describes the step-wise approach adopted; section 3 unpacks the concepts related to food security, nutrition and policy.  See the complete Policy Guidance Series Now also available in Spanish and French.