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The document presents FAO's component of the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Appeal, focusing on maintaining operations in food crisis contexts, anticipating the secondary impacts of the pandemic and related containment efforts on the world's most vulnerable people and sustaining critical food supply chains to avert future food crises.

While the COVID-19 pandemic is devastating lives, public health systems, livelihoods and economies all over the world, populations living in food crisis contexts are particularly exposed to its effects. Countries with existing humanitarian crises are particularly exposed to the effects of the pandemic, which is already directly affecting food systems through impacts on food supply and demand, and indirectly through decreases in purchasing power, the capacity to produce and distribute food, and the intensification of care tasks, all of which will have differentiated impacts and will more strongly affect the most vulnerable populations. The effects could be even stronger in countries [...]

Global cereal markets are expected to remain balanced and comfortable despite worries over the impacts of COVID-19. While localized disruptions, largely due to logistical issues, pose challenges to food supply chains in some markets, their anticipated duration and magnitude are unlikely to have a significant effect on global food markets.  

The policy brief highlights that policy measures should aim to address actual rather than perceived demand and supply disruptions, and that enhanced market transparency, and coordination with trading partners is critical in this regard. It is noted that experiences from past crises have demonstrated that avoiding certain trade-restrictive measures can be equally important to more direct forms of supporting consumers and producers. In this context, following international guidelines on safe travel and trade corridors can help keep agri-food supply chains functional, mitigate food supply disruptions, and promote food security.  

The Food Price Monitoring and Analysis (FPMA) Tool was developed in the wake of the international food price crisis of 2007 and 2008 for dissemination and analysis of domestic and international commodity price data collated by Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS). The FPMA Tool provides easy access to data allowing users to quickly browse and analyse trends, serving as a basis for GIEWS analysis, including the FPMA monthly report and website. GIEWS maintains a global version of the tool, which, as of March 2019, included about 1,400 series of consumer food prices in 90 countries and 88 international [...]

Asia-Pacific is home to well over half of all people worldwide who do not obtain sufficient dietary energy to maintain normal, active, healthy lives. To achieve SDG 2 in the region, more than 3 million people must escape hunger each month from now until December 2030. In most countries in the region, the diets of more than half of all very young children (aged 6–23 months) fail to meet minimum standards of diversity, leading to micronutrient deficiencies that affect child development and therefore the potential of future generations. The high prevalence of stunting and wasting among children under five years of [...]

Fall Armyworm (FAW) continues to spread into new territory, moving further east and north in Asia, as well as north from sub-Saharan Africa. As it spreads, more governments are faced with decisions about how to react quickly and sustainably to the arrival of this new crop pest. Fortunately, they can benefit from over two years’ worth of experience gleaned from across sub-Saharan Africa as well as decades of experience from the Americas. The lessons learned there by governments, resources partners and farmers can help guide decision-makers now being affected by FAW. This policy guide reviews the experiences and lessons learned [...]

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 is an important measure of global progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger. It gives an updated estimate of the number of hungry people in the world, including regional and national breakdowns, and the latest data on child stunting and wasting as well as on adult and child obesity. The report also offers analysis of the drivers of hunger and malnutrition, and this year includes a special focus on the impact of economic slowdowns and downturns. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 [...]

The way food systems have evolved over past decades means that they now face major risks, which in turn threaten the future of food systems themselves. Food systems have seriously contributed to climate change, environmental destruction, overexploitation of natural resources and pollution of air, water and soils. Despite the global average improvement in calorie production and major development of the food and agricultural product markets, huge inequalities in food access and repartition of the added value have emerged, leading to new serious nutritional and social problems. Based on a review of the most recent scientific knowledge, this report emphasizes Low-Income [...]

The publication provides a review on global meat price and policy developments. It aims to provide a snapshot view of global meat price movements and their underlying factors along with a review of global policies that contribute to world meat production and trade dynamics. The publication supports the division’s objective in providing market information relevant for policy makers, helping them in the process to take evidence-based policy decisions. The bulletin reaches over 500 email subscribers and anyone seeking impartial information on world meat market developments.