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The 27th Session of the Committee on Agriculture (COAG 27) will be conducted as a virtual event from 28 September to 2 October 2020.Sustainable Livestock for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a main theme.The livestock sector is a key driver for a sustainable agricultural development. Sustainable livestock farming must improve food security, nutrition and healthy diets, inclusive economic growth, livelihoods, animal health and welfare, and address environment issues.Challenges and opportunities for the livestock sector’s contribution to SDGs will be discussed at COAG 27.COAG is one of FAO’s Governing Bodies with over 120 Member Nations. It provides policy and regulatory guidance [...]

Under the Safe Access to Fuel and Energy (SAFE) programme, FAO has contributed to improving resilience and livelihoods for refugees and internally displaced people in 14 countries through four types of activities: clean cooking, forest management, renewable energy in agri-food chains and policy support.This publication evaluates FAO’s energy-in-emergency portfolio in Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan to define innovative programming options for efficient energy access within the humanitarian settings of these three countries.

This policy brief provides an overview on the role of digital technologies in optimizing traceability in trade for animals and animal products. It highlights the ways in which digital technologies can the enhance performance for monitoring and controlling animal disease, managing food safety and fraud risks, complying with animal production and food standards, facilitating trade and raising consumer awareness.

Sustainable food systems are fundamental to ensuring that future generations are food secure and eat healthy diets. To transition towards sustainability, many food system activities must be reconstructed, and myriad actors around the world are starting to act locally. While some changes are easier than others, knowing how to navigate through them to promote sustainable consumption and production practices requires complex skill sets. This handbook is written for “sustainable food systems innovators” by a group of innovators from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe who are leading initiatives to grow, share, sell and consume more sustainable foods in their local contexts. [...]

More than 820 million people in the world were hungry in 2018 (FAO, 2019). In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), there were 239 million undernourished people, with a prevalence of 22.8 percent as measured by the Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU), a Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) indicator. The target is to bring this prevalence to zero by 2030 (Ritchie et al., 2018). According to the latest Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), 9.2 percent of the world’s population (or more than 700 million people) were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity in 2018, with Africa having the highest level of 27 [...]

It is increasingly recognized that human, plant and animal health, environmental health and food security are inter-linked and that the degradation of ecological systems has significantly increased the overall risk of zoonotic disease outbreaks, in addition to having other complex effects on human health. The devastating human, social and economic effects of COVID-19 should force the global community to ensure prevention of another similar event.The One Health approach provides a platform to work on the interface between human, animal and plant health and their shared environment. Working on the synergies among these areas is key to preventing the outbreak, or [...]

Information is a form of assistance in itself. Access to accurate information can allow people to make informed decisions to protect themselves. Moreover, understanding drivers of behaviour and integrating that understanding into communication approaches can make information more likely to result in desired action. Preparedness and response activities should be based on protection and related “do no harm” principles and conducted in a participatory manner that is informed by community feedback. Communication efforts must respond to stakeholder concerns, mis/disinformation and behavioral factors. Transparent and consistent messaging in local languages through trusted channels can help address barriers to change. Furthermore, by [...]

The anticipated transformation of the Kenyan livestock sector in the coming decades will result in increased public health risks. In order to well address these challenges, national and sub-national governments should adopt a One Health approach, which allows the mitigation of the negative effects of public health threats that originate at the interface between humans, animals and the different environments in which they operate. This paper provides an assessment on the extent to which the prevailing legislative framework facilitates the implementation of the One Health approach in Kenya, and opportunities for legislative reforms. We use a skeleton livestock value chain [...]

This policy brief focuses on the topic of global emergence of infectious diseases and its links with consumption of wild meat, ecosystem disruption, habitat degradation and biodiversity loss. Emerging infectious diseases are a significant and growing threat to global health, economies and security. There is evidence that landscape changes and biodiversity loss are key drivers of the (re-) emergence of infectious diseases. More systematic research is needed to better understand the role of ecosystems in the regulation of diseases. Effective implementation of the One Health approach, promoting coordinated multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary responses, has the potential to reduce disease transmission risks [...]

The Food Systems Dashboard combines data from multiple sources to give users a complete view of food systems. Users can compare components of food systems across countries and regions. They can also identify and prioritize ways to sustainably improve diets and nutrition in their food systems.Dashboards are useful tools that help users visualize and understand key information for complex systems. Users can track progress to see if policies or other interventions are working at a country or regional levelIn recent years, the public health and nutrition communities have used dashboards to track the progress of health goals and interventions, including [...]