FAO.org

This note provides a structured review of adoption trends of national policies aimed at promoting healthier diets and collates evidence on their effectiveness. We limit our focus to evidence exploiting data collected after the policy implementation, and using appropriate counterfactual methods to identify the policy effect. See all Trade Policy Technical Notes  

The purpose of this guidance note is not to recommend policies to prevent or reduce migration, but rather to focus on how to increase policy coherence for mutually beneficial migration and food security and nutrition outcomes, and to address the root causes of migration, to ensure safe, orderly and regular migration and harness its developmental potential for food security and nutrition.  The guidance note outlines key questions to address the interlinkages between rural migration and food security and nutrition and provides examples of positive and negative impacts of various policy interventions to illustrate the importance of key policy shifts. The following [...]

Trade in agricultural products is expected to continue to increase over the coming decades and will therefore influence the extent and nature of food security and nutrition across all regions of the world. The challenge is how to ensure that the expansion of agricultural trade works for, and not against, the elimination of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. Trade policies affect levels of agricultural trade, which in turn affect availability of food in domestic markets, food prices and incomes, along with other important variables that ultimately affect food security and nutrition outcomes. The impact of trade policies on various aspects of food security and nutrition has given rise to [...]

The relationship between trade and food security is attracting increased attention on both the trade and development agendas, with trade recognized as one of the means for achieving the SDGs. The linkages between these concepts are highly complex and have been subject to intense debates. While on the one hand, agricultural trade is considered to balance food deficits and surpluses and broaden consumer choice, on the other, it is also implicated in exposing small-scale value chain actors to greater competition, and speeding up a nutrition transition.   This course seeks to strengthen capacities of agricultural and trade sector stakeholders to: Assess the challenges [...]

This video tells the story of Mehaou, an inspiring Nigerien farmer and grandmother who has overcome many challenges to provide for her family - including rearing, breeding and selling goats.  FAO and the ASTF fund are supporting small farmers to invest and diversity their incomes to create decent employment opportunities. 

Since the 1990s, rural transformations have helped millions of people to rise out of poverty while remaining in rural areas. This underscores an important fact: revitalizing rural economies helps create jobs for rural people, offering an alternative to those who might turn to migration in search of a better life.  However, these rural transformations have not happened everywhere.  For the countries that lag behind, The 2017 State of Food and Agriculture argues that it is not too late. By tapping into the potential of food systems and recognizing the role of small cities and towns in integrated rural-urban planning, inclusive transformations are [...]

Measuring food insecurity through people's experiences The Voices of the Hungry project has launched a tool called the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) which can be used to gather information about the adequacy of people’s access to food by asking them directly about their experiences. National institutions can use the FIES to obtain data-based evidence about the distribution and severity of food insecurity that contributes to building political will and implementing policies to effectively realize the human right to adequate food.    

The Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition “FSN Forum” is an online platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue on food security and nutrition facilitated by FAO’s Agricultural Development Economics Division. The FSN Forum allows registered members and other stakeholders to engage in policy dialogue and knowledge sharing on food security and nutrition both globally and in targeted geographic areas. See also FSN Regional Platforms

The main objective of the Second FAO Africa Regional Nutrition Coordination and Programming Consultation meeting was to improve the coordination of FAO’s Nutrition interventions in particular mainstreaming nutrition into agriculture policies, programmes and investment plans and jointly reinforce technical capacity in advancing nutrition sensitive programming through multi-sectoral strategies. It was also the opportunity to discuss the Post ICN-2 agenda for Africa, the Malabo Declaration and the CAADP Nutrition Initiative in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) being implemented, jointly by FAO and NPCA/NEPAD. This second regional nutrition consultation brought together close to 60 Nutrition Experts from 32 country, sub-regional and regional offices, and FAO Head Quarters. This report highlights the [...]

The Small Island Developing States (SIDS) share unique and particular vulnerabilities, resulting in a complex set of food security and nutrition challenges. The complexity and magnitude of these challenges are daunting and far too great for any one agency, organization or country to solve on their own. Closer international cooperation and a more integrated approach are needed so that all stakeholders can play their part in supporting SIDS in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.