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This policy brief is one in a series led by Chulalongkorn University with support from the Office of the Higher Education Commission, Ministry of Education, Thailand, in partnership with FAO. The series was initiated to support the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Work Plan on Education, 2016–2020 implementation while Thailand was Chair of ASEAN in 2019 under the theme: “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability.” The Briefs offer critical interdisciplinary perspectives on agri-food systems from social and sustainability sciences. They are fully aligned with the regional initiative on Food System Transformation and are meant to support the work engaged with ASEAN.This [...]

This policy brief summarizes the findings of surveys among financial and insurance providers, fishers and fisherfolk organizations in the Philippines in 2021. It explains why financial services are important for small-scale fishers (SSF) and provides recommendations for improving their access to finance and insurance. SSF make an important contribution to food security and the rural economy.The average income of most SSF is below the poverty line of USD 2 500/year. For economic growth and sustainable fishing operations SSF need access to financial and insurance services. Less than 50 percent of the SSF have access to financial services. Only 30 percent [...]

This brochure highlights results and resources from the FAO Global CBIT-AFOLU project in a visually engaging style. It covers the period 2019 to 2021. The project is funded under the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) fund of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by FAO.

Growing international and domestic demand for tropical timber has resulted in critical wood supply gaps for many tropical timber-producing countries, in some instances linked to a surge in illegal logging. Growing shortages of legal timber supply have necessitated the exploration of alternative sources of legally produced timber. Community forestry has been recognized as a potential source that could boost legal timber supply on the domestic market of tropical timber-producing countries. This brief seeks to share the experience accrued across Asia, Africa and Latin America in addressing and overcoming challenges faced in legal frameworks, market access, and capacity building.

The action plan for the implementation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations strategy on mainstreaming biodiversity across agricultural sectors was approved at the 166th FAO Council in 2021 in view of preparations for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.This action plan is based on and serves the purpose of operationalizing the FAO Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity across Agricultural Sectors (Strategy) and is intended to strengthen the work of FAO and its partners, in consultation with Members, to mainstream biodiversity across agricultural sectors.

In response to a growing demand for high-quality and internationally-comparable statistics, FAO develops, implements and promotes methods and standards to guide national data producers in generating and using sound statistics. In particular, the Organization is committed to provide national statistical systems with internationally recognized definitions, concepts and classifications as well as methodological guidance for the production of high quality statistics related to food and agriculture. Find all of FAO's methods and standards - here. Find the most recently published methods and standards under "Download PDF".

INFOODS is the International Network of Food Data Systems. It was established in 1984. It is a worldwide network of food composition experts aiming to improve the quality, availability, reliability and use of food composition data. INFOODS also stands as a forum through which international harmonization and support for food composition activities can be achieved and advocated. INFOODS is organized into several regional data centers with a global coordinator. In this context, INFOODS and FAO provide guidelines, standards, compilation tools, databases, capacity development tools, policy advice, advocacy tools, technical assistance at country level; and they represent a fora to link [...]

This publication, produced by FAO and Zhejiang University, examines how rural e-commerce could advance the digital transformation of agri-food systems, including increasing production efficiency, expanding farmers’ market access, improving poverty alleviation, fostering agricultural entrepreneurship, and attracting young generations back to their villages for economic revival and rural revitalization.It is highlighted that an enabling ecosystem with favourable government policies and strategies, public-private partnerships and innovative business models is of great importance to accelerate the development of rural areas in China, and generate larger economic, social and environmental impacts. As the largest developing country in the world, the experience of digital agriculture [...]

FAO is actively supporting regional and country capacities to shape food systems that enable healthy diets. Developing appropriate food systems policies and actions entails improving governments' and non-State actors' capacities for carrying out the necessary actions. To achieve this goal, FAO has developed a Capacity Development Roadmap in support of the revised Vision and Strategy for FAO's Work in Nutrition (FAO's Nutrition Strategy). The Roadmap will steer the capacity development activities by addressing current gaps and leveraging opportunities.

Human nutrition is vital for agriculture. Many smallholder farmers are food-insecure and suffer chronic or acute forms of malnutrition. This can permanently harm the physical and cognitive growth of children, while reducing productivity as household members are less able to carry out agricultural work.Agriculture is vital for human nutrition. Nutrition has long been considered mostly a health issue. However, agriculture plays an essential role in ensuring nutritional wellbeing not only for rural populations, but also for society as a whole.Beyond producing food in sufficient quantity, agri-food systems should also:    provide diversified, safe and nutritious foods;    improve rural incomes and resilience, [...]