FAO.org

Effective organizations are critical for sustainable development, particularly for food security and agriculture. This course explains how to carry out effective analysis and development of state and non-state organizations in member countries. It also provides illustrations of organizational change, including in government ministries, producer organizations and research institutes. Users will learn:  The importance of analysing organizations’ strengths and weaknesses How to carry out comprehensive analyses of organizations How to design and implement organizational change How to engage in effective multi-stakeholder processes How to monitor progress in organizational development

FAO supports member countries to meet the challenges of an urbanizing world by promoting the integration of Urban and Peri-urban Horticulture (UPH) into national and local agricultural development strategies, food and nutrition programmes and urban planning. UPH is the cultivation of a wide range of crops – including fruit, vegetables, roots, tubers and ornamental plants – within cities and towns and in their surrounding areas. It is a key component of robust and resilient urban food systems whi ch empower the urban poor. UPH is already widely practised in developing countries, accounting for more than half of the fruit and [...]

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, [...]

E-agriculture or ICT in agriculture holds great promise in providing access to innovative solutions to many challenges faced by smallholder resource-poor farmers. Access to the right information at the right time makes a great impact on the livelihoods of communities involved in agriculture and allied activities. This publication presents case studies in innovative use of emerging technologies to significantly improve the living standards of farming communities.  

This is a training course on multisectoral approach to sustainable food and agriculture. It examines the challenges facing agriculture and food production systems and presents a common vision and coordinated approach towards sustainable food and agriculture developed through intensive consultations and discussions among agriculture specialists. It illustrates in detail the five key principles that allow the transition toward a more sustainable and productive agriculture, highlighting examples of strategies, policies and technologies and explaining several sustainability frameworks and programmes which can underpin the efforts towards the implementation of sustainability in food and agriculture.  

FAO has prepared this Programme for Action to help support Sustainable Management of FAW in Africa. FAO works closely with its development and resource partners to maximize coordinated results and minimize duplications.  FAO proposes a five-year programme of action to help farmers, their organizations, their public institutions, national governments and development partners quickly respond the challenges of FAW infestation in smallholder farmers’ fields across Africa.

This report aims to guide FAO – and other international actors – committed to providing developing countries with the support required for implementing their NDCs and ensuring future commitments are transparent, quantifiable, comparable, verifiable and ambitious. The agriculture sectors in Eastern Africa represent a pivotal opportunity for simultaneously leveraging the mitigation potential of the region, while enhancing adaptive capacity and food security outcomes through a transition to more sustainable agriculture and land use. However, change will only come about if supported by appropriate policies, institutional arrangements, capacity development and finance mechanisms. By highlighting the gaps in the coverage of mitigation [...]

This conceptual-level information note seeks to highlight the human rights aspects of the goals and targets relating to food security and small-scale fisheries (SSF), particularly from the perspective of the right to adequate food, and to demonstrate how this interrelationship plays out in the monitoring mechanisms established by relevant instruments. It is the product of a collaborative effort between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to support, using a human rightsbased approach, the integrated implementation and monitoring of those SDGs that are particularly [...]

Sustainable integrated food energy systems can significantly help to address the huge increase in demands for food, energy and water in the coming years. Therefore, there is need for better information and capacities on how to promote integrated food energy system (IFES) to inform decision-makers and secure policy support to that effect. The project aimed to assess the sustainability and replicability of integrated food-energy systems (IFES, particularly for countries such as Ghana and Mozambique, which face the challenge of producing enough food and energy in a non-competitive way. Find more Project Highlights here.

In March 2017 the Working Group on Nutrition-Sensitive Value Chains of the Rome-based Agencies (FAO, IFAD, WFP and Bioversity International) launched the online consultation How can value chains be shaped to improve nutrition? The consultation was held on the FAO Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum) from 27 March to 19 April 2017. The aim of this initiative was to engage stakeholders in identifying challenges and opportunities related to nutrition sensitive value chain (NSVC) development. Participants discussed their experiences relating to past or ongoing NSVC experiences on the ground, and were also invited to comment on the discussion paper “Inclusive value chains for sustainable [...]