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Along the border of Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia, many communities are ethnically and politically divided. Land is at the heart of social, political and economic life, which makes land disputes and other related issues even more challenging. Tensions and conflict in Liberia, as well as the civil war, created an unstable scenario, where marginalized people increasingly take to demonstrating in cities, and roadblocks and even violence are becoming more common. Within this context, FAO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) developed this project to promote the stabilization and cohesion of 10 communities along [...]

This discussion paper aims to help practitioners work in a more informed and politically sensitive way to integrate actions on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) in agriculture. It illustrates some typical governance and political economy-related barriers that may hamper convergence or integration of DRR and CCA actions. It also provides guidance for in-depth governance analysis, putting the analytical focus at national and subnational levels, while considering the international context as an important factor for convergence. The FAO Governance and Policy Support series provides perspectives and concepts on critical governance and policy issues that are relevant to FAO [...]

The roots and tubers industry in sub-Saharan Africa has been growing steadily in recent years. Nevertheless, a series of challenges, including lack of access to finance and climate change related events, has prevented the majority of actors in these value chains, who are mainly small farmers and small processors, from taking advantage of such growth. In order to properly assess such challenges, the project “Strengthening linkages between small actors and buyers in the roots and tubers sector in Africa” conducted a series of studies to identify relevant gaps, constraints and opportunities to develop tailored financial products and risk management strategies [...]

For the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), achieving the commitments following the ratification of the Paris Agreement will require a great effort, as the availability of financial, social, and technical resources are often limited or directly dependent upon the higher income nations. The 47 LDCs account for 13 percent of the global population, 1 percent of global GDP and 5.75 percent of global GHG emissions. These countries not only face more challenging tasks than other countries, as overall conditions within each nation may not facilitate the accomplishment of the stated goals, but they are more vulnerable to climate change and therefore [...]

This bulletin is prepared by the Food Price Monitoring and Analysis (FPMA) Team of the Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS) in the Trade and Markets Division of FAO. It contains latest information and analysis on domestic prices of basic foods mainly in developing countries, complementing FAO analysis on international markets. It provides early warning on high food prices at country level  that may negatively affect food security. The July 2019 edition is also available in: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. 

Advocacy on FAO’s emergency prevention activities along the food chain, in addition to providing information. This series presents FCC-EMPRES core activities through successful programs and initiatives illustrating FAO’s role in supporting member countries to prevent, prepare and respond to transboundary, high impact animal and plant pests and diseases and food safety threats. See more information sheets here.

During the period April to June 2019, Food Chain Crisis (FCC) threats are expected to occur in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe, where they may persist within a country, spread to neighbouring countries, remain latent, or re-emerge or amplify. The dynamics and likelihood of occurrence of FCC threats depend on a number of risk factors or drivers. These include agro-ecological factors (intensive farming systems, deforestation, overgrazing, etc.), climate change (droughts, extreme weather events, flooding, heavy rains, heat waves, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation – ENSO –, changes in vegetation cover, water temperature, etc.), human behaviour (cultural practices, conflicts and civil insecurity, [...]

At the time of project formulation, Eritrea had undertaken a significant amount of preparatory work to characterize the hazards posed by pesticides, and to develop a communication strategy and legislative framework to address these. In 2008, an FAO project identified 400 tonnes of obsolete and unknown pesticides, around 1 400 m3of contaminated soil, 12 000 empty containers and 5 400 contaminated sprayers. The current project was conceived to safeguard and soundly dispose of the stockpile of obsolete pesticides and highly contaminated materials, held in 294 stores scattered across the country. In addition to the environmentally sustainable disposal of the inventoried [...]

Climate change issues are among the leading causes of hunger and affect all dimensions of food security in the Upper West region of Ghana, including access to food, availability and stability of supplies and nutrition. To address this situation, the project aimed to increase the productivity of selected crop commodity value chains (maize, cowpea, soya bean, Sorghum and groundnut) and develop information, education and communication materials for training and capacity-building in disaster management. Emphasis was also placed on Good Agricultural Practices to reduce risk and improve natural resource management.

Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston was one of the strongest tropical cyclones to make landfall in Fiji. The loss of food crops, livestock, fisheries and related infrastructures caused by the cyclone was extensive and a State of Natural Disaster was declared by the Government of Fiji on 20 February 2016. The objective of this emergency project was the rapid re-establishment of agricultural and fisheries production in the most affected households. The project aimed to provide the inputs and technical support needed to revive livelihoods and restore food security to households and communities in the most affected areas.