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The analysis made of the effectiveness of national fishery and aquaculture policies and strategies in ECOWAS Member States and Mauritania has shown overall that their implementation faces with problems related to the low level of domestic funding allocated. This is compounded by their heavy dependence on external financing through TFP programmes and projects in which the objectives are not always aligned with those of national policies. Thus, the attractiveness of the sector will have to be improved by establishing a much more favourable environment for private sector investment in fisheries and aquaculture, given the substantial investment gaps highlighted by the [...]

Intensifying water constraints threaten food security and nutrition. Thus, urgent action is needed to make water use in agriculture more sustainable and equitable. Irrigated agriculture remains by far the largest user of freshwater, but scarcity of freshwater is a growing problem owing to increasing demand and competition for freshwater resources. At the same time, rainfed agriculture is facing increasing precipitation variability driven by climate change. These trends will exacerbate disputes among water users and inequality in access to water, especially for small-scale farmers, the rural poor and other vulnerable populations.The State of Food and Agriculture 2020 presents new estimates on [...]

In the world of development, partnerships developed through Multi-Stakeholder Platforms (MSPs) produce results which exceed stakeholder expectations, as the “open atmosphere” promotes shared knowledge and lessons learnt, creating lasting outcomes at all levels. These results are a by-product of a holistic approach to development and underlying consensus between partners.Last updated date 17/07/2020

FAO and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH have been providing support to the Western Balkans region to promote progress on gender equality, with a focus on measuring the proportion of countries where the legal framework guarantees women’s equal rights to land ownership and/or control.Last updated date 24/07/2020 Also available in Macedonian Serbian Montenegrin Albanian Bosnian

Why land rights matter: Tenure is essential to the livelihoods of billions of people where access to land and natural resources can mean the difference between having food and going hungry. People with weak, insecure tenure rights risk losing their means to self-support without access to land, fisheries and forests. When women have weaker tenure rights caused by discrimination in laws and customs, tenure rights can help promote, support and document fair and transparent processes aimed at ensuring improved access to natural resources for all concerned.

CFS Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) Subscribe here!

By means of a Transversal Project, co-funded by the EU and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) coordinates, supports and consolidates the implementation of the EU Land Governance Programme.The European Union Land Governance Programme funds 18 individual country-level projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, all of which address tenure issues, and are implemented alongside various partners, among which are government agencies, civil society organizations, bilateral and multilateral organizations and private contractors. All project activities are carried out within the framework of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible [...]

Many national legal frameworks still do not include laws and measures specifically intended to tackle climate change in the agriculture sectors. However, national laws and institutional frameworks are necessary for good governance and can operate to support the implementation of national policy and international commitments, including on climate change. Indeed, Target 16.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals calls for the promotion of the rule of law, and the assurance of equal access to justice for all. This is both an important stand-alone goal and an enabling goal for the realization of the transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development‎. Furthermore, the [...]

Blue Bonds are a subset of the Green Bond Market, a $200 billion global market of environmental bonds that has been growing rapidly. Because they are part of this environmental market, compliance of the underlying projects with appropriate green bond standards is required. This is what sets them apart from ordinary or vanilla bonds. Broadly, these standards address 3 concerns of investors, beyond financial requirements: Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG). Find more Blue Growth guidance notes here.

The FIRST Programme aims to support the governments of targeted countries to strengthen the enabling policy and institutional environment for food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture (FNSSA). The programme is designed as a demand-based “policy assistance” facility which has its roots in the long-term partnership between FAO and the European Union and aims to add value to both partners’ actions at the country level.The programme approach of embedding a policy officer within partner country administrations, constitutes the best option for building trusted relationships to support improved policy processes. FIRST has created a high level of trust with government partners [...]