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The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted digital financial inclusion trends across the world in many and complex ways. In developing and emerging contexts, this crisis also holds the potential to propel an unprecedented acceleration in the process of financial digitization and turn out to be a game-changer for digital financial inclusion.The aim of this study is to illustrate the opportunities and risks associated with the surge in uptake and use of digital financial service, providing ideas on how to leverage the paradigm changes affecting the overall approach and perspective towards digital financial services – on the part of various stakeholders – [...]

Uncertainties related to the impacts of COVID-19 on daily life are increasingly growing. Inherent effects have grown beyond the well-defined spear of health risks and have shocked the livelihood and food security in several countries. Particularly in the poorest countries, the impact is more devastating due to the limited availability of resources to slow down the spread of the disease. These countries require immediate actions to safeguard food security and human health. Irrigation has a great role in improving crop productivity and ensuring food security. However, expanding irrigation could impact the availability of water for sanitation and hygiene which has a central role in slowing down the spread of the disease. [...]

FAO  urges  governments,  academia,  NGOs,  international  community  and  indigenous  peoples authorities to take specific measures that ensure the respect to indigenous peoples’ rights during the pandemic and that includes an intercultural approach when dealing with the emergency, safety and health aspects of the response. Also available in Spanish and French

Unlike any other crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted food value chains at all levels (production, processing, logistics and even consumer behaviour to name a few). The impacts vary across countries and are constantly changing with the spread of the pandemic as governments, stakeholders and other actors in value chains adopt and implement a broad spectrum of measures to manage the spread of the virus and mitigate its impacts on food insecurity and poverty. The present brief reviews secondary information pertinent to the impacts of COVID-19 on dairy producing/processing cooperatives, and their coping strategies, with a view to developing policy recommendations [...]

This third edition of the State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries provides a comprehensive overview of the status of fisheries in the region, looking at their main features and trends, in order to better inform their management and better examine current and future challenges that they will face in the near future. The aim of this report is to produce a document that could provide useful analysis and direction for decision-making and future action. In this respect, this publication also represents a convenient source of information for the FAO Committee on Fisheries and offers a practical complement to the [...]

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, probably originated from an animal source, similar to 60 percent of all human infectious diseases. The pandemic has emphasized the need to prepare for, prevent, detect and respond to diseases at primary spillover level, where a new pandemic is likely to start. Pathogens are most likely to spread in locations where wildlife comes into contact with livestock production, particularly where people earn livelihoods, such as in live animal markets, areas where bushmeat is hunted, traded and consumed, or where growing pressures on natural ecosystems has forced livestock, wildlife and humans into close proximity. As [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly every rural household, with particularly serious effects on the most vulnerable. Mobility restrictions have disrupted livelihoods, while the economic downturn has pushed disadvantaged and vulnerable groups deeper into poverty, creating “new poor” and exacerbating gender and social inequalities. Women and girls have been disproportionally affected, due to existing gender inequalities, including inequitable access to and control over resources and services. School closures, elderly care and overwhelmed health services have increased the demands on women for unpaid care work. Across Europe and Central Asia, the time women spend on unpaid care and domestic work has [...]

Even though substantial progress has been achieved worldwide in reducing both poverty and malnutrition, much is yet to be done. There are signs that the progress made in both dimensions has stalled in recent years.Poor-quality diets have become a major driver for overweight and obesity and associated non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, and some types of cancers. Conflict and climate vulnerability have been identified as major obstacles to reaching Sustainable Development Goal targets related to malnutrition by 2030. In 2019, economic downturns and slowdowns hindered efforts even further. More recently, the COVID-19 crisis has imposed even harsher conditions [...]

Rwanda’s agricultural sector accounts for about 29 percent of GDP and employs about 72 percent of the population that is economically active. It is still the dominant source of income for the majority of the poor who live in rural areas and is of significant importance in achieving the national priority objectives of sustainable economic growth, food security, and poverty alleviation.The report provides quantitative evidence on how the Government of Rwanda’s policies and expenditure decisions have supported its food and agriculture sector over the past decade. More, in particular, it provides information on the extent to which producers of key [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified development challenges across Europe and Central Asia, generating ever more demand for rapid, accessible and reliable data to guide decision-making. The evolving pandemic and associated economic crisis are impacting food security and jeopardizing countries’ progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Identifying and evaluating the multi-faceted impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on the food security situation requires real-time, quality information that enables the measurement of changes in people’s access to food and an assessment of the underlying causes.See the full list of policy briefs related to COVID-19.