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This sourcebook provides an overview of the second, digital edition of the Climate-Smart Agriculture Sourcebook. The new edition includes new findings, case studies and lessons learned. It also takes into account the changes in the landscape of international climate action since the original edition was published in 2013. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – which encompasses the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda – provides an international framework for strong national actions and collective efforts to achieve sustainable development. Climate-smart agriculture, as an approach to achieve sustainable food and agriculture, [...]

This report analyses the impacts of violent conflicts on food security, including on coping and consumption patterns, long-term consequences of early-life exposure to conflict, and the linkages between food insecurity and anti-social behaviours.  

Since its introduction to Libya in December 2015, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has spread to a number of farms in the country, causing serious economic losses to poultry farmers and affecting public health. Between 2014 and 2015, the losses to farmers caused by the disease were estimated at over USD10 million. The lack of qualified human resources and appropriate equipment meant that the outbreaks were not deeply investigated, while the absence of biosecurity measures and awareness enabled the evolution of the disease in the country, reaching over 60 percent in backyard farms and leading to an increase in the number [...]

Ethiopia is vulnerable to many natural hazards, and years of below-average rainfall, coupled with the 2015 El Niño-induced drought, resulted in deteriorating food security in 2016. In some regions crop losses, mainly cereals, were between 30 and 95 percent. Many households had to eat their seed reserves, leaving them without means of production in future seasons. This project –part of the largest emergency seed response in Ethiopia’s history –focused on providing seed aid to vulnerable smallholders: 13 875 households were helped, over a third more than the 10 223 initially targeted, to resume their agricultural livelihoods. Find more Project Highlights here.

After heavy and above-average rains fell in September 2015 in the Southern Province and Western Area, an estimated 22 000 people were affected and thousands of hectares of land were destroyed. The worst of the damage occurred in Bo, Bontheand Pujehundistricts. Because many households in Sierra Leone depend on agriculture for their food and income, the loss of crops and seeds devastated the food and nutrition security of farmers in these areas, who were already at the peak of the lean season. This project was implemented to immediately improve household food security while allowing farmers to restart agricultural production during [...]

During the period 2007–2017, the government’s main policies for the agricultural sector aimed at reinforcing support to farmers, strengthening disaster risk management and rehabilitating degraded pastures. The government increased non-contributory social assistance expenditure for categorically targeted programmes from 1.3 percent of GDP in 2008 to 2.2 percent in 2014 (higher than levels in Europe and Central Asia). Nevertheless, the performance of the social assistance system in terms of coverage, targeting accuracy and adequacy, remains a challenge. See all FAPDA country fact sheets.

New evidence this year corroborates the rise in world hunger observed in this report last year, sending a warning that more action is needed if we aspire to end world hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. Updated estimates show the number of people who suffer from hunger has been growing over the past three years, returning to prevailing levels from almost a decade ago. Although progress continues to be made in reducing child stunting, over 22 percent of children under five years of age are still affected. Other forms of malnutrition are also growing: adult obesity continues [...]

FAO promotes the use and scale up of Cash+ as a tool for emergency response, strengthening resilience and reducing rural poverty. The Cash+ model supports the enhancement of vibrant and diversified livelihoods, providing an important safety net against shocks and stresses for poor and vulnerable rural households. As such, the model has great transformative potential. Cash+ is a tool for quick-impact humanitarian response and recovery as well as serving as a component of long-term social protection and resilience programmes. FAO’s work on Cash+ is based on field experience and research, which show the potential of this tool to sustainably enhance the [...]

Since 2008, FAO has been at the forefront of efforts to measure resilience to food insecurity and has pioneered the development and use of the Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis (RIMA) to understand the capacity of households to react to shocks. RIMA identifies vulnerable households and analyzes the underlying factors that contribute to their low resilience, while supporting decision-makers to develop evidence-based programs and policies to improve their resilience.

Based on governance dialogue seminar held at FAO in November 2017, the brief emphasizes that to effectively address the risk of protracted crises, it is critical to understand the governance and political economy of the prevailing contexts, the principal actors and their power dynamics, the impact of the crises and the nature of the support required. The political economy and conflict analyses can reveal the underlying or proximate causes of a crisis, inform conflict-sensitive programming and help bridge humanitarian and development intervention. The brief also discusses the relevance of investing in resilient agriculture-based interventions in protracted crises contexts.