FAO is proud to share with you its recent publication “Right to Food – Making it Happen”. The Right to Food Forum, held at FAO headquarters in October 2008, created a momentum for a strengthened commitment towards implementing the right to food. “Right to Food – Making it Happen” presents the results of the Forum as well as lessons learned with country-specific implementation beyond this event. It offers valuable insights and practical guidance on how to put the human right to food into practice through human rights-based development efforts.

Drawing on the field experiences of a broad range of actors, such as FAO member countries, practitioners, and civil society organizations, the publication serves as a roadmap for all stakeholders, who are dedicated to take on their obligation to progressively and sustainably realize the right to food of their populations. Since the adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security (Right to Food Guidelines) in 2004, action has already been taken in several issue areas throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia: advocacy, policy making, legislation, monitoring, assessment and the strengthening of institutions. In order to further consolidate and successfully mainstream these initial implementation efforts, continuous well-informed and grounded action is required in line with the Right to Food Guidelines and this publication aims at guiding the way forward.

“Right to Food – Making it Happen” is structured in three parts. A short clarification of concepts prominent to a human rights-based approach to global and national food security in Part ONE is followed by a synthesis of discussions at the Right to Food Forum in Rome in Part TWO. Synthesizing the fruitful discussions, outputs and lessons learned from the different panels, this part also contains best practice examples from different countries and thus contains valuable starting points for necessary action. Part THREE finally discusses five country case studies, describing in-depth the lessons learned and indicating the way forward in Brazil, Guatemala, Mozambique, India and Uganda.

It is our hope that “Right to Food – Making it Happen” will constitute a source of inspiration and a useful tool that effectively contributes to your work towards making the right to food a reality for all.