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Measures adopted around the world to contain the COVID-19 outbreak helped curb the spread of the virus and lowered the pressure on health systems. However, they also affected the global trading system, and the supply and demand of agricultural and food products. In response to concerns over food security and food safety worldwide, many countries reacted immediately to apply policy measures aiming to limit potentially adverse impacts on domestic markets.Covering the first half of 2020, the report provides an overview of short-term changes in trade patterns and policy measures related to agricultural trade that countries adopted in response to the [...]

This report consists of two main sections: 1) a situation analysis of Sustainable Development Goal 2 Target 2.1 (to end hunger and ensure access to food by all) and Target 2.2 (to end all forms of malnutrition) and analyses of the diets of children and of current food consumption patterns relative to dietary guidelines; and 2) a special look at the cost and affordability of healthy diets in Europe and Central Asia.The new estimates confirm that the prevalence of hunger at chronic or severe levels is relatively low in the ECA region. However, the prevalence of food insecurity at moderate [...]

Territorial markets are essential to the livelihoods and food and nutrition security of populations. These markets are suffering multiple challenges in the current context of COVID-19 related restrictions on travel and transports and global economic slowdown. Against this background, strengthening territorial markets can support food production and access to healthy and nutritious foods. This requires a good understanding of the functioning of these markets. The FAO mapping system for territorial markets has been developed to this scope, and implemented in Tanzania as illustrated in this brief.See the full list of policy briefs related to COVID-19.

This action sheet is part of a series of action sheets developed under the seven key priority areas of the FAO COVID-19 Response and Recovery programme, the FAO umbrella programme designed to proactively and sustainably address the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic. Each action sheet includes a project proposal in support of countries most in need for which FAO is leveraging high-level political, financial and technical expertise. All action sheets are gathered on the Food Coalition web hub,  where members of the Coalition - a multi-stakeholder global alliance for a unified global action in response to COVID-19 -  can easily access [...]

This report shares the analysis on the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the agri-food system in Liberia based on the assessment conducted during July–September 2020.The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is implementing a project to contribute to data collection and analysis linked to COVID-19 to inform evidence-based programming in selected countries. The objective is to assess the effects of COVID-19 in the agri-food system, which includes livestock and fishing, food supply, livelihoods and food security of the rural population at national level. Information is collected from primary sources of the production process: producer [...]

With financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) leads the establishment of a data and analysis facility in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and other shocks. The objective of the facility is to improve decision making in support of the food security and livelihoods of all actors in key agricultural, livestock and fisheries value chains in high priority food crisis countries, with a focus on producers.This assessment was conducted between July and September 2020 across 16 governorates of Yemen.See the full list of [...]

Food systems were severely hit by COVID-19 and the related restrictions to the movement of people and goods. In fisheries and aquaculture, the socio-economic effects of COVID-19 are manifold including changes in consumer demand, limited storage facilities, drop in fresh fish prices and stopping fishing operations.Many individuals working in the sector operate in the informal market with no coverage from labour market policies – not registered in mandatory social security, paid less than the legal minimum wage, without a written contract, or self-employed. These individuals include small-scale fishers, migrant, fish workers, ethnic minorities, crew members, harvesters, gleaners and vendors – [...]

On top of a decade of exacerbated disaster loss, exceptional global heat, retreating ice and rising sea levels, humanity and our food security face a range of new and unprecedented hazards, such as megafires, extreme weather events, desert locust swarms of magnitudes previously unseen, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Agriculture underpins the livelihoods of over 2.5 billion people – most of them in low-income developing countries – and remains a key driver of development. At no other point in history has agriculture been faced with such an array of familiar and unfamiliar risks, interacting in a hyperconnected world and a precipitously [...]

This progress report details the work carried out by FAO across the Southwest Asia to combat the unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods posed by the ongoing desert locust invasion. The report outlines the control measures taken so far as well as the longer-term reposnse planned for safeguarding the means of survival of millions of vulnerable people who could be affected by the pest, particularly with the compounding impact of COVID-19 and the restrictions this will likely incur for the Organization's humanitarian assistance.

In a year characterized by unprecedented disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this publication records the steps the Codex Alimentarius has taken from July 2019 (CAC42) to September 2020 (CAC43) on the road to safe and quality food for everyone.Over the course of the year, some Codex committees were able to meet as scheduled to discuss updates to international food standards, guidelines and codes of practice. Those meetings able to complete their work include the six FAO/WHO Coordinating Committees covering all regions of the globe. Meetings were suddenly halted in March 2020 and since then Codex has been breaking new [...]