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Increasing exports is one of the most important priorities for governments and plays a prominent role in the development agenda in developing countries, high-income states and all countries between. On the other hand, pursuing the intensification of trade demands a deliberate policy framework tailored to country-specific needs and the interests of producers. In light of this, governments around the globe have developed various export promotion policies – some that share similar characteristics and others that are unique – that can serve as best practices to many. The purpose of this paper is to identify the best promotional practices implemented [...]

El propósito de esta nota es apoyar el diálogo para considerar el enfoque de igualdad de género y el enfoque cultural en las políticas para la seguridad alimentaria, la productividad, y el desarrollo rural. Exploramos elementos que deben ser tomados en cuenta para la incorporación de las mujeres rurales e indígenas al desarrollo rural en una perspectiva de no dejar a nadie atrás, a partir de las condiciones particulares del campo mexicano.  Esta nota se ha producido en el marco de la alianza estratégica entre la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO) y el Fondo [...]

The document is the result of a technical cooperation agreement between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the National Land Agency. It presents the results of an intermediate evaluation of the Peasant Reserve Zones legally established in Colombia, providing guidelines to strengthen and dynamize this legal figure in the context of rural development policies. Through the revision of the historical context and the legal and institutional framework, and using primary and secondary information, this evaluation examines the challenges related to governance, including institutional and organizational actors, the application of normativity and the design of sustainable productive [...]

As part of RAP’s efforts to raise visibility to a wider audience of the good work its specialists undertake for member countries in the region, this two-page brochure summarizes our priority areas of work and explains the value they add to our member countries in the region. This regional sectoral snapshot (fisheries and aquaculture) is a first of its kind in at least the last five years.

This brochure presents FAO ’s work on agricultural innovation. FAO advocates a shift from interventions focusing on single components of agricultural innovation towards a system-approach aimed at strengthening institutions and stakeholders’ networks that better respond to the needs of smallholder farmers. Agricultural innovation is the process whereby individuals or organizations bring new or existing products, processes or ways of organization into use for the first time in a specific context in order to increase effectiveness, competitiveness, resilience to shocks or environmental sustainability and thereby contribute to food security and nutrition, economic development or sustainable natural resource management. Innovation is central to [...]

This Resource framework is intended as a guidance tool for stakeholders involved in programme design, implementation and monitoring of Home-Grown School Feeding Programmes and the related policy and institutional environment, including, inter alia: governments and development partners providing technical and financial assistance, as well as civil society, community based organisations and the private sector. It is a knowledge product that harmonizes the existing approaches and tools, and builds on the wealth of expertise and experience with home grown school feeding models i.e. those designed to provide children in schools with safe, diverse and nutritious food, sourced locally from smallholders, with [...]

The objective of this corporate Framework (the ‘Framework’) is to guide the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in carrying out its mandate in its areas of competence and comparative advantage, i.e. food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture, towards a more deliberate and transformative impact on sustaining peace. Following the April 2016 Security Council and General Assembly resolutions on peacebuilding, the concept “sustaining peace” encompasses activities aimed at preventing the outbreak, escalation, continuation and recurrence of conflict, including addressing root causes and moving towards recovery, reconstruction and development. The United Nations Secretary-General has called on all UN entities to [...]

This brochure presents FAO's sustained and consistent work towards gender equality and the empowerment of rural women, which are at the core of the Organization's efforts to end hunger, malnutrition and rural poverty. FAO recognizes the potential of rural women and men in achieving food security and improving nutrition and is committed to working with partners and strengthening its efforts to eliminate the gender inequalities that undermine the performance of the agriculture sector. Also available in Chinese, French, Spanish and Russian. 

Today’s food and agricultural systems have succeeded in supplying large volumes of food to global markets. However, high-external input, resource-intensive agricultural systems have caused massive deforestation, water scarcities, biodiversity loss, soil depletion and high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Despite significant progress in recent times, hunger and extreme poverty persist as critical global challenges. Even where poverty has been reduced, pervasive inequalities remain, hindering poverty eradication. Integral to FAO’s Common Vision for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, agroecology is a key part of the global response to this climate of instability, offering a unique approach to meeting significant increases in our food [...]

The initiative to develop the Global Strategy to improve agricultural and rural statistics (GSARS) came as a response to address developing countries’ lack of capacity to provide reliable statistical data on food and agriculture and to provide a blueprint for long-term sustainable agricultural statistical systems.