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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 [...]

The livestock sector is a complex one that touches not only on animal production and agriculture but on environment, health, and land-use rights. Addressing all of these topics within a policy is a delicate task especially where there is a wide range of competing objectives: economic growth, employment, equality, food and nutrition security, environmental conservation and climate change adaptation. In the context of responding to increased demand for edible animal products through mainly industrialized growth, policies should better protect smallholders’ needs and livelihoods. Policies can also help address the scrutiny this sector has faced for its effects on the environment, human [...]

One hundred million people worldwide earn an income from fisheries and aquaculture and many more rely on fish for a nutritious diet. The policy agenda of the sector tends to be oriented towards commercial interests. Often, food security, nutrition and livelihoods concerns are not well factored into fisheries-related policy measures due to the overall lack of knowledge about their linkages, as well as poor coordination across the respective policy domains. This fisheries and aquaculture guidance note highlights the importance of fisheries in local and global food systems and demonstrates how related policy measures can contribute to nutrition and health, particularly [...]

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.

This guideline is an instructive tool that highlights key climate change and agricultural risks in the United Republic of Tanzania and provides information on mainstreaming climate change adaptation and mitigation objectives within rural development. It provides guidance on how this could best be achieved through the implementation of the CSA approach, in line with other policies related to agriculture sectors, food and nutrition security, and climate change. Its goal is thus primarily to inform on the implementation of the CSA framework and to describe the CSA practices and technologies best suited for different regions and agro–climatic zones of the country. [...]

This series of e-learning modules assists professionals from any food and agriculture field in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of nutrition-sensitive programmes, investments and policies. Developed through a multi-stakeholder consultative process and using a scenario-based and experiential learning approach, the modules cover all forms of malnutrition and a diversity of contexts. ALL COURSES ARE FREE. Nutrition, food security and livelihoods: basic concepts An introduction to the basic concepts of food, nutrition; the different forms of malnutrition; the frameworks for food security, nutrition security and livelihoods and their linkages. Understanding these concepts is key to be able to assess the nutrition situation [...]

The toolkit is an integrated package of guidance on how to design, implement, monitor and evaluate nutrition-sensitive food and agriculture policies and programmes. It is the result of a consultative process within FAO and with external partners, including development partners (in particular the World Bank and the European Commission), NGOs and academia. The toolkit includes: Key recommendations for improving nutrition through agriculture and food systems10 recommendations for designing programmes in a nutrition-sensitive way and 5 recommendations for creating an enabling environment for nutrition. Also available in French, Spanish and Russian. Designing nutrition-sensitive agriculture investments. Checklist and guidance for programme formulation provides key questions, [...]

This e-learning course introduces you to the concepts of productive employment and decent work and its relevance for food and nutrition security and rural poverty reduction. The course also provides guidance on how to integrate employment and decent work considerations into agricultural strategies and programmes, with focus on specific groups such as rural women, youth and children in the agricultural sector. Content The course consists of 6 lessons: Lesson 1   Understanding employment and decent work in rural areas: concepts and definitions Lesson 2   The centrality of employment and decent work for agricultural development, poverty reduction and food and nutrition security Lesson 3   Youth [...]

Given the prevalence of Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) as a development objective and the importance of appropriately using public resources, the current paper aims to propose a classification table and method to construct indicators of public expenditures towards FSN, which can subsequently be used for policy analysis. The paper follows the following structure: after a brief introduction, the research question is introduced and positioned with respect to related researches available in the literature in section 2. The rationale of the MAFAP public expenditures in support of food and agriculture methodology is detailed in section 3, before being applied to [...]

Cette note s’emploie à évaluer la cohérence des politiques agricoles et alimentaires mises en œuvre au Sénégal entre 2010 et 2015. L’analyse révèle notamment une hausse et un rééquilibrage des dépenses publiques en soutien à la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition. Toutefois, les politiques agricoles et alimentaires du Sénégal continuent de souffrir d’un déficit de cohérence, perceptible à l’échelle du secteur agricole et de ses sous-secteurs. Les cultures végétales jouissent d’une attention prioritaire au détriment de l’élevage et de la pêche, sans pour autant répondre à un objectif politique précis. Les investissements consentis dans les infrastructures de pêche et d’élevage [...]