In recent years, the number of people experiencing acute hunger has been persistently high. And 2018 was no exception. Some 113 million people in 53 countries were acutely hungry last year. That is 113 million girls, boys, men and women, old and young, who were unable to access enough food and required humanitarian assistance to meet their most basic needs. For FAO, building resilient agriculture-based livelihoods and food systems is at the core of efforts to fight acute hunger and avert food crises. We know how critical humanitarian assistance is. At the same time, it is clear that humanitarian assistance on its own is not enough to win the battle against acute hunger. That is why FAO’s humanitarian work is firmly embedded within a foundation of resilience building. And this was really demonstrated in 2018, when the breadth of our work extended from immediate humanitarian response to protect lives and livelihoods in some of the most complex contexts in the world, including South Sudan and Yemen, to addressing the vulnerability of pastoral populations and facilitating the development of livestock feed balances in the Horn of Africa, to supporting disaster risk reduction efforts from Myanmar to Central America. Publications such as this offer us an opportunity to reflect on some of our achievements over the past year and identify how we can do better in the next. It is not intended as an exhaustive list of the work done under FAO’s strategic programme on resilience, but rather a snapshot to demonstrate what we can achieve and how much more this to be done.
A summary of the achievements of FAO's resilience and emergency programmes in 2017, covering over 50 countries. While 59% of resources went to preventing famine in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, FAO also responded to other major protracted crises.
New evidence this year corroborates the rise in world hunger observed in this report last year, sending a warning that more action is needed if we aspire to end world hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. Updated estimates show the number of people who suffer from hunger has been growing over the past three years, returning to prevailing levels from almost a decade ago. Although progress continues to be made in reducing child stunting, over 22 percent of children under five years of age are still affected. Other forms of malnutrition are also growing: adult obesity continues to increase in countries irrespective of their income levels, and many countries are coping with multiple forms of malnutrition at the same time – overweight and obesity, as well as anaemia in women, and child stunting and wasting.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is perennially plagued by prolonged phases of poverty, conflict, and increased internal migration, as well as pandemic outbreaks such as Ebola and COVID-19, and limited livelihood opportunities. Such unexpected or catastrophic events have rendered households vulnerable and resulted in poor health outcomes. Given this background, we intend to analyze the nutritional profile of households for a period spanning almost a decade using the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES). We construct a composite nutrition deficiency index (NDI), capturing intake of 14 different macro- and micronutrients (which we refer to as dimensions)—namely, calories, protein, calcium, zinc, folate, thiamine, niacin, iron, vitamin A, vitamin B12, vitamin D, vitamin B6, vitamin C, and vitamin E—using the popular Alkire-Foster methodology. This methodology, usually used to construct multidimensional poverty indexes, in this case helps measure the incidence, intensity, and combined extent of multinutrient deprivation. DRC’s values on the multidimensional NDI vary regionally from 0.13 to 0.73. Urban DRC performs worse than rural DRC. Regions subject to the conflict and Ebola crises are the worst-affected of the nutritionally deprived regions. Deficiency in calorie and protein intake contributes to the highest values of the NDI, but we also find evidence of a double burden of malnutrition, with households lacking consumption of both macro- and micronutrients. South Kivu is the worst-performing of all regions and Mongala the best. The northern parts of DRC have fewer nutritionally deprived households, as compared with the central and southwestern parts. Our main policy recommendation is to help improve market access in urban areas so that people consume a more diverse diet. In rural areas, the government should support improving nutrition-sensitive agricultural production. Although the World Food Programme has a sustained presence in the country, uplifting households from severe hunger, active participation by the government and collaboration with multiple stakeholders is called for.
There is a strong imperative to rebuild Iraq’s agriculture sector as it is a major provider of employment and income in rural and peri-urban areas. This will allow for the return of millions of internally displaced people (IDP) in Iraq to their areas of origin, following the retaking of Iraqi areas that used to be under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – i.e. all or parts of the five affected governorates of Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Ninewa and Salah al-Din. The impact of conflict caused by ISIL on the agriculture sector has been devastating and includes huge population movements, destruction of and damage to water systems, irrigation facilities and other agricultural infrastructure, disruption of value chains and losses of personal assets, crop and livestock production and food supplies. In response, the Government of Iraq has developed the Iraq Reconstruction and Development Framework (IRFD), which contributes to the Iraq Vision 2030 and National Development Plan (2018–2022). Guided by IRFD, Iraq’s United Nations Country Team (UNCT) formulated the Recovery and Resilience Programme (RRP), which prioritizes three (out of nine ) components to be implemented in the retaken areas with high priority: (i) preventing violent extremism; (ii) restoring communities; and (iii) restoring agriculture and water systems. The RRP was presented at the Kuwait International Conference for Iraq's Reconstruction in February 2018, which was jointly organized by the Government of Iraq, the World Bank and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.
FAO’s major publications series are presented together in a user-friendly catalogue. The catalogue features all of the most active series, both new and long-standing, and is divided into areas of work, including agriculture, forestry, fisheries, trade and investment, among others. Each series entry includes technical specifications, language versions, most recent titles, relevant ISSNs, and QR codes linking to online resources in the FAO Document Repository.
This report presents the findings of a multi-year FAO study undertaken on over 900 farms in ten different countries that measured, using field data, benefits gained through the use of innovative farming practices designed to boost the resilience of farmers in the face of natural disasters and other shocks. Its findings show that the use of good disaster risk reduction practices offer significant economic gains at the household level, and also that – because they are usually low-cost and easily implemented – they hold significant potential for reducing disaster risks at the national and regional scales as well. These results can guide farmers in making choices about how to manage risks, and have important implications for disaster risk policymaking as well.
Ethiopia is a low-income country and agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, accounting for for 34 percent of GDP and 70 percent of total employment share. Ethiopia remains one of the world’s poorest countries, despite the significant progress achieved in reducing poverty and hunger. The Government of Ethiopia through its Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) has consistently prioritized the transformation of agriculture from low-input, subsistence-oriented production systems to a fast-growing, intensive and commercially oriented sector to support the country’s aspirations to become a middle-income country by 2025. FAO’s Country Programme Framework (2016-2020), was formulated based on the GTP II. Over the evaluation period (2014-2019), FAO exceeded the resource mobilization targets. Overall, FAO’s programme displays several imbalances and disconnects, specifically between development activities and emergency response. The evaluation calls for FAO to adopt a more cohesive programmatic approach and continue to consolidate its fragmented programme. In the context of the Government’s plans for agricultural transformation, the evaluation also recommends that FAO support an economically sound value chain and market-based approach to agricultural development, while upholding normative values of inclusiveness and ecological sustainability.
This case study describes the Republic of Chile’s approach to building agricultural resilience to natural hazard-induced disasters, particularly climate risks. It outlines two areas of strength, namely: - Chile’s national agroclimatic risk information system – this consists of a series of interconnected platforms, agroclimatic information bulletins, tools and initiatives to monitor, identify, assess and communicate the risks, and; - the country’s capacity development events and training, which support decision making by agricultural stakeholders on how to avoid and reduce the adverse impacts of natural hazard-induced disasters. Furthermore, this case study outlines a variety of financial instruments that are available to fund emergency response and recovery activities in the agricultural sector and to transfer risk through the provision of state subsidies for agricultural insurance.
This paper examines the parallel but separate trajectories of peace-building, recovery and transformation that have occurred over the past 15 years in northern (Acholi and Lango sub-regions) and northeastern (Karamoja sub-region) Uganda. While keeping in mind the key differences in these areas, we highlight the similarities in the nature of recovery, the continuing challenges and the need for external actors to keep in mind the ongoing tensions and vulnerability that could undermine the tenuous peace. The initial peace processes in both northern Uganda and Karamoja were largely top-down in nature, with little participation from the affected populations. In Karamoja, the Ugandan military started a forced disarmament campaign in 2006. This was the second such effort in five years and was top-down and heavy-handed. Although many observers gave it little chance of success, by 2013 large-scale cattle raids were infrequent, and road ambushes were almost non-existent. Critically, local initiatives eventually emerged in parallel to the top-down disarmament efforts. Prime amongst these were local resolutions adopted in 2013–2014 that created a system of compensation for thefts, enforced by “peace committees.” In northern Uganda, a top-down, politically negotiated peace process between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda ended two decades of fighting in 2006. The internally displaced person (IDP) camps were disbanded, and thousands of displaced people returned to their rural homes, some because they no other option once assistance in the camps ceased. One of the most important factors in recovery in Karamoja has been the growth of markets. Traders were reluctant to bring wares to the region during the period of insecurity, and hence goods were few and prices high. Today, most trading centres host markets on a weekly basis, and shops have consistent inventories. In northern Uganda, the biggest driver of recovery has been the return of displaced people to their homes and the resumption of farming. By 2011, crop production had resumed its pre-conflict status as the primary livelihood in the region. In both locations, however, engagement in markets is limited, and many people remain economically marginalized. Challenges to recovery and long-term stability are similar across the two locations. Both northern Uganda and Karamoja continue to struggle with food insecurity and malnutrition, despite the massive influx of development funds, improved security and expansion of markets. In northern Uganda, the conflict continues to influence household livelihoods. Households that have a member who experienced war crimes are consistently worse off. These continuing problems with food security and nutrition call into question many assumptions about recovery and development. In particular, the idea that peace will bring a natural bounce in economic and household well-being does not appear to hold up in these cases. Additional structural challenges to recovery in both locations include climate change and environmental degradation, poor governance and corruption, limited opportunities for decent work, livelihood transformation and loss, and conflict over land. These factors reinforce each other and make it extremely difficult for average households to develop sustainable and secure livelihoods. External interventions often fail to take into account the local priorities and realities in these areas. Many programmes are place based or focus on rural areas, but the population is in flux. This is especially true for young people. In addition, while many people are doing much better than they were 15 years ago, others are being pushed out of pastoralism and are struggling to achieve diversified and sustainable livelihoods. Overall, while the recent trajectories of recovery in Karamoja and northern Uganda are remarkably similar, the context, livelihoods and challenges in each location are importantly unique. National actors should not seek to derive combined approaches or policies that lump together these two areas. In both cases, the lived reality, history and experiences of the population should be central to designing appropriate, effective and sustainable responses to the ongoing obstacles to a stable peace and full recovery.
