Green jobs in agrifood systems


Book Description

Populations in the G5 Sahel countries are growing rapidly. Given these large cohorts of young populations, over the next five years 11.4 million youth will turn 16 years old, and most will then start to seek jobs in the region. Although the countries are urbanizing, meaning that future economic growth may be faster in industry and services than in agriculture, in the short and medium run the bulk of new jobs are likely to be created in the agriculture sector and its supply chains. For the five countries of the G5 Sahel – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Mali and Niger – this study aims to address the following questions: i) What employment can be created for youth, as agriculture and the agrifood value chains become environmentally sustainable as part of a rural green transition?; and ii) What policies, programmes and investment are needed to create these jobs and ensure that young women and men can access them?




Green Jobs


Book Description

Green jobs, employment that contributes to protecting the environment and reducing humanity's carbon footprint, will be a key economic driver of the 21st century. This report explores the role green jobs will play within the various industries, energy production, construction, transportation, energy-intensive industries, recycling and re-manufacturing, and agriculture and forestry.




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.




Building resilience in the Sahel region through job creation for youth


Book Description

The Sahel region is nowadays facing many challenges, including insecurity, rising extremism, lacking of economic prospects and decent employment opportunities, besides also experiencing poor access to education, vocational training and overall basic services. Youth are among the most vulnerable group in the region, and although youth population is expected to grow, if employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for youth remain limited, young people will continue to remain in a vicious cycle of food insecurity and deep poverty. This case study outlines how the project "Building resilience in the Sahel region through job creation for youth", strengthened the capacities of rural youth in their entrance in the agrifood system adopting green practices, while also empowering the national institutions tasked in supporting them. The case study also provides all the lessons learned throughout its implementation as well as details of the project’s evaluation.




FAO publications catalogue 2023


Book Description

This catalogue aims to improve the dissemination and outreach of FAO’s knowledge products and overall publishing programme. By providing information on its key publications in every area of FAO’s work, and catering to a range of audiences, it thereby contributes to all organizational outcomes. From statistical analysis to specialized manuals to children’s books, FAO publications cater to a diverse range of audiences. This catalogue presents a selection of FAO’s main publications, produced in 2023 or earlier, ranging from its global reports and general interest publications to numerous specialized titles. In addition to the major themes of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, it also includes thematic sections on climate change, economic and social development, and food safety and nutrition.




Investment guidelines for youth in agrifood systems in Africa


Book Description

The Investment guidelines for youth in agrifood systems in Africa, developed jointly by FAO and the African Union Commission (AUC) through a multi-stakeholder and participatory process, highlight the importance of youth as change agents and key stakeholders contributing to sustainable agrifood systems. The guidelines aim to accelerate investments in and by youth in agrifood systems by providing practical guidance - including tools and examples - to design, develop, implement, monitor and evaluate youth-focused and youth-sensitive investment programmes and to engage youth fully as partners in the entire process. The guidelines were prepared with the support of the AUC and FAO Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) “Partnership to Support AU’s Strategies on Social Protection, School Feeding and Rural Youth Employment” of the FAO Regional Office for Africa (RAF) and from the Investment Centre (CFI). This publication is part of the Investment Toolkits series under the FAO Investment Centre's Knowledge for Investment (K4I) programme.




Sustainable Food and Agriculture


Book Description

Sustainable Food and Agriculture: An Integrated Approach is the first book to look at the imminent threats to sustainable food security through a cross-sectoral lens. As the world faces food supply challenges posed by the declining growth rate of agricultural productivity, accelerated deterioration of quantity and quality of natural resources that underpin agricultural production, climate change, and hunger, poverty and malnutrition, a multi-faced understanding is key to identifying practical solutions. This book gives stakeholders a common vision, concept and methods that are based on proven and widely agreed strategies for continuous improvement in sustainability at different scales. While information on policies and technologies that would enhance productivity and sustainability of individual agricultural sectors is available to some extent, literature is practically devoid of information and experiences for countries and communities considering a comprehensive approach (cross-sectoral policies, strategies and technologies) to SFA. This book is the first effort to fill this gap, providing information on proven options for enhancing productivity, profitability, equity and environmental sustainability of individual sectors and, in addition, how to identify opportunities and actions for exploiting cross-sectoral synergies. - Provides proven options of integrated technologies and policies, helping new programs identify appropriate existing programs - Presents mechanisms/tools for balancing trade-offs and proposes indicators to facilitate decision-making and progress measurement - Positions a comprehensive and informed review of issues in one place for effective education, comparison and evaluation




Being "agricool": Supporting ASEAN youth and tertiary student futures for sustainable agrifood system learning and livelihoods to meet the Sustainable Development Goals


Book Description

This policy brief is one in a series led by Chulalongkorn University with support from the Office of the Higher Education Commission, Ministry of Education, Thailand, in partnership with FAO. The series was initiated to support the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Work Plan on Education, 2016–2020 implementation while Thailand was Chair of ASEAN in 2019 under the theme: “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability.” The Briefs offer critical interdisciplinary perspectives on agri-food systems from social and sustainability sciences. They are fully aligned with the regional initiative on Food System Transformation and are meant to support the work engaged with ASEAN. This brief focuses on the need for HEIs, international agencies, regional organizations and governments in Southeast Asia to do more to assist youth and tertiary students by providing adequate programmes, curricula, research and extension services. It highlights that it is critical to consider youth as an active partner and to fully include them in better documenting and evaluating youth and student issues while scaling-up best practices. It advocates for improved university services in rural communities to catalyze a paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agro-ecological systems.




Europe and Central Asia – Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2022


Book Description

This report presents the latest updates related to food security and nutrition in Europe and Central Asia, including estimates on the cost and affordability of healthy diets. It also explores how governments are supporting the food and agriculture sector and how to repurpose policies and incentives to make healthy diets more affordable and agrifood systems more environmentally sustainable. The new estimates confirm that the prevalence of hunger at chronic or severe levels is relatively low in the ECA region, through the prevalence of food insecurity at moderate or severe levels can be quite high. The region is seeing alarmingly high – and rising – rates of overweight and obesity. The COVID-19 pandemic has added 25.5 million people in the region to the ranks of the moderately or severely food insecure, leaving them without access to safe, nutritious and adequate food. The war in Ukraine has made the situation worse. Almost all ECA subregions are experiencing increased costs and reduced affordability of healthy diets because of higher food prices and lower incomes. This report contains an in-depth analysis of the repurposing of food and agricultural policies to ensure the food systems transformation is better suited to addressing the “triple challenge” of achieving food security and good nutrition for better health, providing livelihoods to farmers and others connected to the sector, and reducing the nature and climate footprint of the sector. This report also reviews complementing policies within and outside of agrifood systems to assess whether repurposing efforts are impactful in the ECA region.




Green finance as a critical lever for delivering sustainable agrifood systems – A global landscape study


Book Description

The global landscape study on ‘Green finance as a critical lever for delivering sustainable agrifood system’ is an inclusive commentary on the current status of green finance to agrifood sector in the global south and its support system. This document provides evidence that the current green finance trends favour the development of the clean energy industry, whereas smallholder agriculture has not had the same success. Financing the agrifood sector in a “business as usual” mode is not a sufficient condition to mitigate the risks emanated from a range of climatic shocks and unprecedented events impacting the global food value chains. Sustainable financing mechanisms through innovative instruments and business practices are potential solutions and green finance emerges as the way forward to shift the focus from economic profit creation to the generation of stakeholder’s value (economic, environmental, and social governance). The document presents an excellent opportunity that can help elicit ongoing initiatives, application mechanisms, and significant issues to build global narratives about developing an inclusive approach to green finance services for the agrifood sector.