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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 2018-drought directly affected more than two-thirds of Afghanistan (22 out of total 34 provinces) with around 10.5 million people being most severely affected (of the total 17 million in these 22 provinces). 13.5 million people were facing “Crisis” or worse levels of food insecurity in September 2018 and at least 300,000 people internally displaced due to drought. This was one of the most severe droughts in recent times in Afghanistan. Several strands of scientific analyses and experiential evidence from Afghanistan indicate the increasing frequency, scale, duration, and impacts of drought in the country; a trend that is set to [...]

The aim of this report is to define the strategy for the Science and Policy Interface under Component 1 of the Resilient Food Systems Programme (RFS) Hub. Under this component, FAO and UN-Environment Programme, in partnership with RFS country projects and a range of other actors and platforms and institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, aim to address institutional and policy barriers to inclusion of ecosystem services-aware approaches into policies and investments for improved and sustainable smallholder agriculture and natural resources. The focus of this component is the facilitation of dialogue, models, policies, and institutions that bridge the agricultural and environmental agendas [...]

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 access the [...]

Las metas de la Agenda 2030 de Desarrollo Sostenible relacionadas con la seguridad alimentaria y la nutrición no podrán alcanzarse mientras en algunos territorios de América Latina y el Caribe sigan viviendo poblaciones con niveles de malnutrición que, como mínimo, duplican los promedios nacionales. A menudo, las oportunidades económicas en estos lugares son limitadas, la presencia de servicios públicos es escasa y la exposición a eventos climáticos severos es elevada. Precisamente, es en estos territorios históricamente rezagados donde las políticas públicas impulsadas en la región han mostrado un menor impacto y donde es apremiante generar una nueva agenda de instrumentos [...]

Para alcanzar los ODS en América Latina y el Caribe, son necesarios territorios rurales prósperos e incluyentes: “El 78 por ciento de las 169 metas de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible dependen exclusiva o principalmente de acciones emprendidas en las zonas rurales del mundo”. Este documento abordará: i) las obligaciones de los Estados para la erradicación de la pobreza, ii) propuestas de medidas legislativas para erradicar la pobreza rural, y iii) acciones parlamentarias necesarias para promover medidas legislativas y políticas para la erradicación de la pobreza rural, y el ejemplo del "Frente Parlamentario contra el Hambre en América Latina y [...]

The analysis made of the effectiveness of national fishery and aquaculture policies and strategies in ECOWAS Member States and Mauritania has shown overall that their implementation faces with problems related to the low level of domestic funding allocated. This is compounded by their heavy dependence on external financing through TFP programmes and projects in which the objectives are not always aligned with those of national policies. Thus, the attractiveness of the sector will have to be improved by establishing a much more favourable environment for private sector investment in fisheries and aquaculture, given the substantial investment gaps highlighted by the [...]

La pandemia por COVID-19 plantea desafíos para la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional, el desarrollo rural enfocado en la recuperación económica y el uso sostenible de los recursos naturales. La reconstrucción económica sostenible, como respuesta a los efectos de la crisis global que amenazan con hacer retroceder el avance del desarrollo de Chile en al menos 10 años, es también una oportunidad para fortalecer la capacidad de enfrentar futuras emergencias que, como la crisis de COVID-19, afectan de forma desproporcionada a grupos vulnerables, exacerbando la desigualdad y la pobreza. La propuesta de recuperación pospandemia de la FAO para Chile apunta a [...]