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On 25 September 2015, the 193 Member States of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – including 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets – committing the international community to end poverty and hunger and achieve sustainable development between 2016 and 2030. Six months later, a global indicator framework for the SDGs – comprising 230 indicators - was identified to monitor the 169 targets and track progress, becoming the foundation of the SDGs’ accountability structure. The number of indicators - four times greater than for the MDGs - represents an immense challenge for countries. FAO [...]

This issue of The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture aims to provide objective, reliable and up-to-date data and information to a wide range of readers – policy-makers, managers, scientists, stakeholders and indeed all those interested in the fisheries and aquaculture sector. As always, the scope is global and the topics many and varied. This edition uses the latest official statistics on fisheries and aquaculture to present a global analysis of trends in fish stocks, production, processing, utilization, trade and consumption. It also reports on the status of the world’s fishing fleets and analyses the make-up of human engagement in [...]

FAO promotes the transition to sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural policies and governance mechanisms, working with countries on reviewing their policies and investment strategies and helping them align their policies and programmes in support of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Between 2013 and 2015, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) undertook a survey of innovative approaches that enable markets to act as incentives in the transition towards sustainable agriculture in developing countries. Through a competitive selection process, 15 cases from around the world provide insights into how small-scale initiatives that use sustainable production practices are supported by market demand, and create innovations in the institutions that govern sustainable practices and market exchanges. These cases respond to both local and distant consumers’ concerns about the quality of the [...]

Fighting hunger is not only about producing more food. It also means protecting food sources from diseases that can spread across borders. The Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES), is a surveillance and early warning system established with the objective of preventing food chain emergencies caused by transboundary threats. These may be animal or plant pests and diseases or food safety threats and can have a great impact on food security and food safety. Threats to the food chain affect not only  food security livelihoods and human health, but also national economies and global markets. This is why surveillance, early detection, early [...]

Climate change plays an increasingly important role in the international debate on food security. While the key concern is on how climate change can impact world food security: how to meet the food needs of a world population reaching 9.5 billion people under climate uncertainty, the agrifood sector is also increasingly under scrutiny to increase its contribution to climate change mitigation efforts. This is not surprising since worldwide, the agrifood chain (including agriculture as well as food processing, distribution, retail and utilisation) contributes to over 20 percent of total GHG emissions (excluding land use emissions).

MOVING TOWARDS HUNGER-FREE PORTUGUESE-SPEAKING COUNTRIES The project worked towards strengthening national capacities to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in the nations making up the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. It brought together leading civil society organizations, the private sector, academic institutions and parliamentarians from the countries involved, as well as fostering cooperation between member states to advance the national implementation of the strategy. The benefits were to be felt deep within communities, as with school feeding programmesin Cabo Verde and São Tomé e Príncipe and family farming in Timor-Leste and Angola. Project duration: 03/02/2014  - 03/10/2016

This policy brief is based on the proceedings of the Regional workshop on the use of the cold chain in the development of agriculture and agroindustries in sub-Saharan Africa, organized in Yaoundé (Cameroon) in June 2012. The workshop brought together speakers from diverse backgrounds to analyse findings from case studies conducted in food supply chains that included meat, fruits and vegetables, fish and seafood, milk and dairy products.

Increasing global Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a major threat to human and animal health. It endangers modern human and veterinary medicine and undermines the safety of our food and environment.  The commitment of FAO Members to work on AMR was confirmed by the adoption of Resolution 4/2015 at the Thirty-ninth Session of the FAO Conference in June 2015. This resolution is a call to action to both FAO Members and the Organization itself to address the multifaceted aspects of mitigating both the impact on, and the contribution of, the food and agriculture sectors to the threat posed by Antimicrobial Resistance. This document outlines the FAO Action Plan [...]

More and more people are becoming overweight and obese, with increasing diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Behind the global shifts in malnutrition and NCDs are unhealthy diets and a sedentary lifestyle. Our food systems and the food environments are not delivering on the diets needed to promote and sustain optimum health. This publication focuses on influencing food environments for healthy diets and offers suggestions on suitable interventions to address that environment. Countries will find the information useful as they develop policies and programmes to make healthy diets an easier choice for their citizens.