Guidance on core indicators for agrifood systems – Measuring the private sector’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals


Book Description

The publication "Guidance on core indicators for agrifood systems – Measuring the private sector’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals" aims to provide practical information on how food and agriculture companies’ contribution to the SDGs can be measured in a consistent manner and in alignment with countries’ needs relating to monitoring the attainment of Agenda 2030. The indicators are further intended to serve as a tool to assist governments in: improving private sector’s accountability mechanisms and assessing their contribution to SDG implementation, in particular on key transformative actions needed to achieve the SDGs; setting standards and policies for corporate sustainability reporting, establishing national private sector reporting mechanisms, and enabling the reporting on SDG Indicator 12.6.1 (Number of companies publishing sustainability reports); and potentially reusing the data reported by private entities to improve SDG monitoring at the national level. Available in a user-friendly format, the guidance begins with a quick guide that provides a brief overview of the indicators, the audience, scope, and data collection. It is followed by methodological guidance, which provides in-depth detail on the methodology behind each indicator and useful resources for capturing, measuring, and reporting on data for each indicator. Finally, in the annexes, there is a mapping of how the indicators align with various standards and guidance.




OECD-FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains


Book Description

OECD and FAO have developed this guidance to help enterprises observe standards of responsible business conduct and undertake due diligence along agricultural supply chains in order to ensure that their operations contribute to sustainable development.




Developing a roadmap towards increased sustainability in geographical indication systems


Book Description

FAO and the Global Alliance of Geographical Indications (oriGin) have been collaborating since 2016 to develop the Sustainability Strategy for Geographical Indications (SSGI). This strategy for sustainable GIs aims to highlight and strengthen the relationship between GI systems and sustainability, raise stakeholders’ awareness of their role in GI sustainability and boost the sustainability performance of GI systems. Geographical indications (GIs) are signs used on products that originate from a specific territory and possess qualities or a reputation related to that origin. Through their establishment and management, GIs can stimulate endogenous development when ensuring leadership by local producers, product specifications that are tailored to local conditions and recognition by buyers of products’ origin-linked qualities. This guide provides a practical step-by-step roadmap for GI organizations that wish to engage on their own sustainability journey. The roadmap consists of three key stages: 1. prioritize sustainability topics for the GI system and engage with public and private stakeholders; 2. assess needs and establish a baseline for each priority topic; and 3. monitor and improve the GI system’s sustainability performances, and regularly review the roadmap in collaboration with allies. Communication is the fourth crucial and transversal component of the roadmap; it improves efficiency during the process and allows stakeholders to share and celebrate the results. By following the eight steps outlined in this guide, with detailed guidance, examples and models, GI practitioners will be able to design a sustainability roadmap for their GI system, together with stakeholders.




Guidelines for sustainable agricultural investments for Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya and Niger


Book Description

These guidelines have been drawn up as part of the AgrInvest-Food Systems Project (AgrInvest-FS), a collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) to promote private investments in African food systems that contribute to sustainable development objectives. The purpose of these guidelines is to serve as a reference and provide practical country-customized guidance to foster sustainable investments in agrifood systems in the four African countries covered by the AgrInvest-FS project of FAO-ECDPM.




SAFA Guidelines


Book Description

The Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) Guidelines were developed for assessing the impact of food and agriculture operations on the environment and people. The guiding vision of SAFA is that food and agriculture systems worldwide are characterized by all four dimensions of sustainability: good governance, environmental integrity, economic resilience and social well-being.




OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2016-2025


Book Description

The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2016-2025 provides an assessment of prospects for the coming decade of the agricultural commodity markets across 41 countries and 12 regions, including OECD countries and key agricultural producers, such as India, China, Brazil, the Russian Federation and Argentina.




The State of Food and Agriculture 2021


Book Description

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerability of agrifood systems to shocks and stresses and led to increased global food insecurity and malnutrition. Action is needed to make agrifood systems more resilient, efficient, sustainable and inclusive. The State of Food and Agriculture 2021 presents country-level indicators of the resilience of agrifood systems. The indicators measure the robustness of primary production and food availability, as well as physical and economic access to food. They can thus help assess the capacity of national agrifood systems to absorb shocks and stresses, a key aspect of resilience. The report analyses the vulnerabilities of food supply chains and how rural households cope with risks and shocks. It discusses options to minimize trade-offs that building resilience may have with efficiency and inclusivity. The aim is to offer guidance on policies to enhance food supply chain resilience, support livelihoods in the agrifood system and, in the face of disruption, ensure sustainable access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to all.







Developing Sustainable Food Value Chains


Book Description

Using sustainable food value chain development (SFVCD) approaches to reduce poverty presents both great opportunities and daunting challenges. SFVCD requires a systems approach to identifying root problems, innovative thinking to find effective solutions and broad-based partnerships to implement programmes that have an impact at scale. In practice, however, a misunderstanding of its fundamental nature can easily result in value-chain projects having limited or non-sustainable impact. Furthermore, development practitioners around the world are learning valuable lessons from both failures and successes, but many of these are not well disseminated. This new set of handbooks aims to address these gaps by providing practical guidance on SFVCD to a target audience of policy-makers, project designers and field practitioners. This first handbook provides a solid conceptual foundation on which to build the subsequent handbooks. It (1) clearly defines the concept of a sustainable food value chain; (2) presents and discusses a development paradigm that integrates the multidimensional concepts of sustainability and value added; (3) presents, discusses and illustrates ten principles that underlie SFVCD; and (4) discusses the potential and limitations of using the value-chain concept in food-systems development. By doing so, the handbook makes a strong case for placing SFVCD at the heart of any strategy aimed at reducing poverty and hunger in the long run.




Renewable energy for agri-food systems: Towards the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement


Book Description

In 2021, the United Nations Secretary-General will convene the Food Systems Summit to advance dialogue and action towards transforming the way the world produces, consumes and thinks about food guided by the overarching vision of a fairer, more sustainable world. The Secretary-General will also convene the High-Level Dialogue on Energy (HLDE) to promote the implementation of the energy-related goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Given the inextricable linkages between the energy and agriculture sectors, integrating the nexus perspective within the FSS and the HLDE is crucial to formulate a joint vision of actions to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement. In this context, IRENA and FAO have decided to jointly develop a report on the role of renewable energy used in food chain to advance energy and food security as well as climate action towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. While energy has a key enabling role in food system transformation and innovation in agriculture, its current use is unsustainable because of the high dependence on fossil fuels and frequent access to energy in developing countries. The challenge is to disconnect fossil fuel use from food system transformation without hampering food security. The use of renewable energy in food systems offers vast opportunities to address this challenge and help food systems meet their energy needs while advancing rural development while contributing to rural development and climate action.