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Approximately 30% of food produced for human consumption around the world is either lost or wasted each year. This is equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes of food. Robert VanOtterdijk, Agro-Food Industries Officer and Camelia Bucatariu, Technical Officer of the FAO Nutrition and Food Systems Division explain the importance of actively preventing and reducing food loss and waste and its direct contribution to food and nutrition security for all. They describe the FAO policy work, including key policy messages. See all videos in the Policy and Governance series :  AR  CH  EN   FR  RU  SP

Pollution, illegal fishing, over-exploitation and climate change have become major threats to aquatic eco-systems. We need to change how the planet's marine and freshwater resources are managed. Lahsen Ababouch, Director of the FAO Fisheries and Agriculture Department together with Rebecca Metzner, Senior Fishery Officer explain how the Blue Growth Initiative contributes to balancing food security, economic growth, social development and the sustainable use of aquatic living resources. They describe the FAO policy work, including key policy messages, to integrating all three. See all videos in the Policy and Governance series :  AR  CH  EN   FR  RU  SP

This brochure describes FAO's area of work on on facilitating the implementation of Article 14 of CEDAW for rural women's empowerment and food security under Strategic Objective 1 implemented by the Cross Cutting Theme on Gender. The brochure contains a rational for why it is important to address gender inequalities for food security and nutrition through political commitment and by incorporating the perspective of gender equality and the empowerment of rural women in sectoral and cross-sectoral policies and strategies. It then describes what FAO can do to support its Member Countries to comply with CEDAW and thus to formulate gender-equitable [...]

Is trade a threat or an opportunity for food security? Longstanding debates over this question remain unresolved. This is understandable when one considers that the agricultural sector serves a range of vital functions in society. This paper seeks to shed light on this debate by providing an overview of the main opposing narratives and the rationale behind them. It does not seek to advocate one viewpoint over the other. Instead, it seeks to examine the contours of the debate with a view to uncovering why it is so polarized, and how we might move beyond the current impasse in international [...]

L’Agriculture ouest-africaine est à un tournant décisif. Les effets conjugués d’une forte hausse de la demande, d’une croissance économique soutenue, des prix agricoles mondiaux plus élevés et d’un environnement politique amélioré ont engendré des conditions les plus propices pour la croissance agricole depuis une trentaine d’années. Les pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest et leurs Partenaires de développement reconnaissent désormais l’importance décisive du secteur pour une croissance diversifiée, la sécurité alimentaire, une nutrition améliorée et la réduction de la pauvreté. Cependant, une combinaison de défis anciens et émergents, allant du changement climatique à la volatilité accrue des prix, menace la capacité de [...]

The present document reviews and assesses the recent and ongoing initiatives dedicated to monitoring and analysing Public Expenditure in support of Agriculture (PEA) in Africa. This document fills a gap and responds to the need of policy-makers and policy analysts in Africa for a detailed and analytical review of what exists in terms of PEA monitoring and analysis in Africa. The objective of the present review is thus to: (i) shed light on PEA monitoring and analysis initiatives in Africa: not only their method and definition of agriculture, but also their nature, objectives, scope, current status, and most importantly their [...]

The SWSR is a reference document on the status of global soil resources that provides regional assessments of soil change. The information is based on peer-reviewed scientific literature, complemented with expert knowledge and project outputs. It provides a description and a ranking of ten major soil threats that endanger ecosystem functions, goods and services globally and in each region separately. Additionally, it describes direct and indirect pressures on soils and ways and means to combat soil degradation. The report contains a Synthesis report for policy makers that summarizes its findings, conclusions and recommendations.    Technical Summary also available here.

Le présent rapport fournit des estimations relatives aux coûts des investissements, tant publics que privés, qui sont nécessaires pour éliminer les déficits énergétiques alimentaires chroniques et atteindre l’objectif Faim Zéro d’ici à 2030. Cet objectif est en conformité avec la poursuite du deuxième objectif de développement durable (ODD 2) qui consiste à éliminer la faim à l’horizon 2030, et avec le premier objectif (ODD 1), qui est d’éradiquer la pauvreté. Le rapport adopte un scénario de référence, dit de "maintien du statu quo, qui est fondé sur la poursuite de la stratégie actuelle. D'après ce scénario, près de 650 millions [...]

Ending Malnutrition offers key insights from the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) to catalyze follow-up actions across the world. It reviews current evidence on the prevalence of malnutrition and analyzes several salient policy issues crucial for a concerted global effort to end malnutrition – improving food systems at the core of a sustainable nutrition strategy, promoting social protection to improve welfare, including health and nutrition, using fortification and supplementation to address micronutrient deficiencies, and improving access to water and sanitation. The concluding chapter focuses on the key role that multilateral institutions must play in accelerating and sustaining global progress [...]

Persistent underinvestment in agriculture in developing countries can be attributed to many issues including: climate risks, fragmented input and service markets, seasonal and long-term financing requirements, weak property rights, and market-distorting political interventions. However, the rapid rise in world demand for agricultural products provides incentives for local actors to develop innovative financial and risk management mechanisms. Commercial investors are starting to recognize agribusiness as a promising sector because of the upwards trend in food markets. As most commercial investors focus solely on financial returns, public incentives and support are required to make investments more inclusive and to create business linkages [...]