Videos
Six years into the 2030 Agenda, there is an urgent need to understand where the world stands in eliminating hunger and food insecurity, as well as in ensuring sustainable agriculture. FAO's new report, “Tracking progress on food and agriculture-related SDG indicators”, offers analysis and trends on indicators across eight SDGs (1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 12, 14 and 15), highlighting areas of progress and areas where further effort is needed.
PRESS RELEASE | Online report | Printable version [pdf] | 2020 edition
In the margins of the 48th session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), FAO, together with Apeel, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment and Unilever co-hosted “By the numbers – capturing the private sector contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the agri-food system transformation” on Thursday 3 June 2021.
Attended by more than 120 participants, this event brought together the perspectives of diverse stakeholders to discuss how measurable progress is key in ensuring business impact towards agri-food systems transformation for people and the planet.
The Global Forest Resources Assessments or FRA, by its acronym, is the most comprehensive assessment of the world’s forests. It is also the only global assessment that is based on official national statistics. FRA data are widely used to support evidence-based recommendations by governments, civil society, and the private sector, and to inform international conventions and agendas. In particular, FRA plays a central part in monitoring progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 15, Life on Land.
FAO's report “Tracking progress on food and agriculture-related SDG indicators” offers detailed analysis and trends on 22 indicators under its custodianship across 6 SDGs (2, 5, 6, 12, 14 and 15). Available in a digital format, this year’s edition has also been enriched with an assessment of the progress made at national, regional and global levels towards the achievement of the SDG targets. This assessment is supported by a methodological annex and a dedicated table summarizing the main results.
PRESS RELEASE | Online report | Printable version [pdf] | 2019 edition
The success of the 2030 Agenda depends on expertise, vision and political will, but also on the availability of higher-quality data to help design, finance, implement, monitor and evaluate development interventions. Investing in better data is a critical complementary investment that ensures that scarce resources are put to good use. As custodian for 21 SDGs indicators, FAO is grateful to those resource partners who are supporting its work and calls for new and renewed resource partnerships.
Find out more:
An overview of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the importance of monitoring the 169 targets associated with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The role of FAO as custodian agency for 21 SDG Indicators.
An overview of SDG indicators 2.1.1 and 2.1.2, measuring hunger and severity of food insecurity.
An overview of SDG indicators 2.3.1 and 2.3.2, measuring productivity and income of small-scale food producers.
An overview of SDG indicator 2.4.1, measuring sustainability of agriculture.
An overview of SDG indicators 2.5.1 and 2.5.2, measuring conservation of genetic resources for food and agriculture and risk status of livestock breeds.
An overview of SDG indicators 5.a.1 and 5.a.2, measuring women’s ownership of agricultural.
An overview of SDG indicators 6.4.1 and 6.4.2, measuring water use efficiency and water stress.
An overview of SDG indicator 12.3.1, measuring global food losses.
An overview of SDG indicators 14.4.1, 14.6.1, 14.7.1, 14.b.1, measuring fish stocks, sustainability of fisheries, illegal fishing and access rights for small-scale fishers.
An overview of SDG indicators 15.1.1, 15.2.1, 15.4.2, measuring forest area, mountain vegetation cover, and sustainable management of forests.
ACHIEVING ZERO HUNGER: Combining social protection with pro-poor investments
Eradicating world hunger sustainably by 2030 will require an estimated additional $267 billion per year on average for investments in rural and urban areas and in social protection, so poor people have access to food and can improve their livelihoods, a 2015 United Nations report says. This would average $160 annually for each person living in extreme poverty over the 15 year period.
Prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP), the report notes that despite the progress made in recent decades, in 2015 nearly 800 million people, most of them in rural areas, still do not have enough food to eat.
Eliminating chronic undernourishment by 2030 is a key element of the proposed Sustainable Development Goal 2 of the new post-2015 agenda to be adopted by the international community and is also at the heart of the Zero Hunger.
FINANCING ZERO HUNGER – KOSTAS STAMOULIS, FAO
Eradicating world hunger and malnutrition by 2030 will require an estimated additional US$267 billion per year. With almost four-fifths of the poor living in rural areas, FAO and its partner agencies in Rome say agriculture-related rural incomes must be raised in order to fulfil the two most important Sustainable Development Goals, which are set to replace the Millennium Development Goals as they expire at the end of 2015. FAO’s Kostas Stamoulis explains more on what is required.
ENDING HUNGER THE NEW GOAL AFTER UN REPORT – JOMO SUNDARAM, FAO
The State of Food Insecurity in the World, the final UN hunger report www.fao.org/hunger/en/ in the period of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), indicates that the MDG target to halve the share of undernourished people in the world has not quite been met. While more than 200 million have escaped from a life of hunger since 1990, about 795 million people are chronically undernourished today. Jomo Kwame Sundaram, FAO’s Assistant Director-General for Economic and Social Development, analyses the findings including their significance for new sustainable global development goals.
THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURE IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT – REN WANG, FAO
How to feed a growing world population without depleting the planet’s resources counts high among the complex challenges facing decision-makers crafting global development goals this year. In this video, Ren Wang, Assistant Director-General for Agriculture and Consumer Protection at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, describes the centrality of agriculture to the sustainable development discussion, and highlights approaches in which farmers around the world are producing greater yields with less environmental damage.
SOILS ESSENTIAL TO A SUSTAINABLE PLANET – RONALD VARGAS, FAO
The United Nations had declared 2015 to be the International Year of Soils. In this interview, Ronald Vargas, Soils and Land Management Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, describes the many benefits of and threats to this natural resource, and underlines the importance of a sustainable approach to managing soils in the Post-2015 development agenda.
- Read: Five reasons why soil is key to the planet’s sustainable future
- View the infographic: Soil, where food begins
POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA – JOMO SUNDARAM, FAO
The Post-2015 development agenda is a United Nations-led process aimed at helping member states define a global development framework that will succeed the 8 Millennium Development Goals when they reach their target date at the end of 2015. At the same time as accelerating efforts to meet MDG targets, the Food and Agriculture Organization has embraced the post-2015 process, identifying 14 thematic areas in which it can support member states in arriving at new goals. Maria Helena Semedo is the FAO's Deputy Director-General, Coordinator for Natural Resources.
- Read : Video interview: Sustainability means marrying people and the planet - Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General [FR] [SP]
MARIA HELENA SEMEDO ON POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) broke new ground in setting global development priorities from 2000 to 2015. As the clock ticks down on the MDGs, the world community is deep in discussion over a successor global framework for the next 15 years. Jomo Sundaram is Assistant Director-General for Economic and Social Development at the Food and Agriculture Organization. He explains what the post-2015 development agenda is, and why a growing global population, diminishing natural resource base and worsening effects of climate change are shaping talks along the lines of future sustainability.