This plan guides FAO’s response to prevent the levels of food insecurity
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and malnutrition from worsening. It sets out key emergency agricultural livelihood interventions to be implemented within the framework of the 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP)
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Five months after the beginning of the desert locust upsurge in the Greater Horn
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of Africa and Yemen, and four months since the launch of the response plan (24 January 2020) a total of USD 130 million have been mobilized in the region.
As described in the recently published Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) quarterly report (January to April 2020), a lot has been achieved already, thanks to generous contributions from resource partners and affected governments.
But bringing a desert locust upsurge under control and mitigating its impact on livelihoods and food security requires a prolonged effort and numerous factors could influence the duration and magnitude of the problem, including the widespread presence of COVID-19.
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Food environments are usually defined as the settings with all the different types of
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food made available and accessible to people as they go about their daily lives.
That is, the range of food in supermarkets, small retail outlets, wet markets, street
food stalls, coffee shops, tea houses, school canteens, restaurants, and all the other
venues where people buy and eat food. These environments differ enormously depending on the context. They can be extensive and diverse, with a seemingly endless array of options and price ranges, or they can be sparse, with very few options on offer. Because they determine what food consumers can access at a given moment in time, at what price, and with what degree of convenience, food environments both constrain and prompt the consumer’s choice.Food environments are influenced by the food systems which supply them, and vice versa. Food systems encompass the entire range of activities, people and institutions involved in the production, processing,
marketing, consumption and disposal of food (FAO, 2013). They include but are not limited to food supply chains. Making food systems nutrition-sensitive can contribute to addressing all forms of malnutrition, as food systems determine whether the food needed for good nutrition are available, affordable, acceptable and of adequate
quantity and quality. How closely food systems and food environments are interrelated and interdependent, and the degree to which external factors affect nutrition outcomes, varies from setting to setting.Many of today’s food systems
and food environments are challenged in supporting consumer choices that are
consistent with healthy diets and good nutrition. Consumers are not making choices based on nutrition and health, and poor diet is now the number one risk factor for death and disability worldwide (GBD, 2015). Food systems that do not enable healthy diets are increasingly recognized as an underlying cause of malnutrition (GLOPAN, 2016), and malnutrition, irrespective of form, has a huge cost. Economic costs associated with undernutrition are estimated at $1-2 trillion per year, about 2-3% of global GDP (FAO, 2013); the global economic cost of obesity and associated diet-related non-communicable diseases is estimated at $2 trillion per year, about 2.8% of global GDP (McKinsey, 2014). Influencing food environments for promoting healthy diets is an emerging strategy to address today’s nutrition challenges.
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global human, animal, plant and environment health threat that needs to be addressed by every country. The impacts of
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AMR are wide-ranging in terms of human health, animal health, food security and safety, environmental effects on ecosystems and biodiversity, and socioeconomic development. Just like the climate crisis, AMR poses a significant threat to the delivery of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The response to the AMR crisis has been spearheaded through the global action plan on antimicrobial resistance (GAP-AMR), developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015, in close collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), and formally endorsed by the three organizations’ governing bodies and by the Political Declaration of the high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on AMR in 2016. In 2022, the three organizations officially became the Quadripartite by welcoming the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) into the alliance “to accelerate coordination strategy on human, animal and ecosystem health”.
The aim of the GAP-AMR is to ensure the continuity of successful treatment with effective and safe medicines.
Its strategic objectives include:
• improving the awareness and understanding of AMR;
• strengthening the knowledge and evidence base through surveillance and research;
• reducing the incidence of infection through effective sanitation, hygiene and infection prevention measures; optimizing the use of antimicrobial medicines in human and animal health; and
• developing the economic case for sustainable investment that takes account of the needs of all countries and increasing investment in new medicines, diagnostic tools, vaccines and other interventions.
With the adoption of the GAP-AMR, countries agreed to develop national action plans (NAPs) aligned with the GAP-AMR to mainstream AMR interventions nationally. Individually, the Quadripartite took action to advance AMR interventions in their respective sectors. FAO adopted a resolution on AMR recognizing that it poses an increasingly serious threat to public health and sustainable food production, and developed an AMR action plan to support the resolution’s implementation. For its part, WOAH developed a strategy on AMR aligned with the GAP-AMR, acknowledging the importance of a One Health approach to AMR. Similarly, more recently, UNEP’s governing body, the United Nations Environment Assembly, recognized that AMR is a current and increasing threat and a challenge to global health, food security and the sustainable development of all countries, and welcomed the GAP-AMR and the NAPs developed in accordance with its five overarching strategic objectives
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This document provides additional guidance for the responsible and prudent use of antimicrobials in foo
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d-producing animals, and should be read in conjunction with the Recommended International Code of Practice for Control of the Use of Veterinary Drugs CAC/RCP 38-1993. Its objectives are to minimize the potential adverse impact on public health resulting from the use of antimicrobial agents in food-producing animals, in particular the development of antimicrobial resistance.
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Supporting the food and agriculture sectors in implementing
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the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance to minimize the impact of antimicrobial resistance
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The Global Early Warning – Early Action (EWEA) report on food security and agriculture is deve
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loped by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The report is part of FAO’s EWEA system, which aims to translate forecasts and early warnings into anticipatory action.
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Previous crises, such as the Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa in 2014, indicate the direct impact movement restrictions and disease contain
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ment efforts have on food availability, access, utilization and violence – particularly gender-based violence (GBV). The importance of maintaining and upscaling food security interventions for the most vulnerable populations, alongside the health sector’s efforts to avert disease spread, is therefore undeniable. The COVID-19 outbreak in South Sudan threatens to paralyze an already fragile food system and negatively impact more than 6.5 million people in South Sudan who remain vulnerable. At the same time, the core national capacities for prevention, preparedness and response for public health events is limited, and the healthcare system has been weakened by years of conflict, poor governance and low investments.
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This manual for developing national action plans to address antimicrobial resistance has been developed at the request of the World Health Assembly
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to assist countries in the initial phase of developing new, or refining existing national action plans in line with the
strategic objectives of the Global Action Plan. It proposes an incremental approach that countries can adapt to the specific needs, circumstances and available resources of each individual country. Details of actions to be taken will vary according to national contexts.
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English Analysis on World and 19 other countries about Agriculture, Food and Nutrition
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and Drought; published on 13 Jan 2021 by FAO
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Recent forecasts by the Food and Agriculture Organiz
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ation of the United Nations (FAO) have indicated a risk of locust invasion in West Africa from June 2020. From East Africa, some swarms could reach the eastern part of the Sahel and continue westwards from Chad to Mauritania.
Surveillance and control teams will be mobilized across the region with a focus on Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and the Niger, and extended to Senegal. Countries such as Cameroon, the Gambia and Nigeria are also on watch in the event that desert locust spreads to these highly acute food-insecure countries. Since the region could be threatened in the coming months, FAO is strongly encouraging no regret investments in preparedness and anticipatory action to control swarms and safeguard livelihoods, given already high levels of acute food insecurity. Therefore, cost estimates for preparedness, anticipatory action and rapid response have been assessed.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is having a profound negative effect on the global economy and is occurring in th
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e context of a rapidly changing climate. This year is expected to be the second hottest in recorded history. Weather forecasts for 2020 indicate a high probability that extreme weather will adversely affect food production in many countries. This brief draws on historical evidence and demonstrates that reductions in national food availability caused by severe weather events tend to be considerably larger in magnitude when they occur during global economic downturns. The risks posed by this dual threat are particularly high for poorer countries that are net food importers. Taking actions to mitigate these adverse effects in the short-term, while building the resilience of agri-food systems to future shocks is critical for avoiding major contractions in food availability and associated risks of food insecurity.
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Educational materials (slide presentations) from FAO covering important biosecurity aspects in poultry farms
On 3 October 2016, Category 4 Hurricane Matthew cut a path of destruction across the Republic of Haiti. Its devastating winds
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and heavy rainfall caused widespread damage in the southwest of the country. The most affected departments are Grande-Anse, Sud, Sud-Est and Nippes. The death toll in the country is rising to at least 473 and cholera is spreading.
A Flash Appeal was launched on 10 October to provide immediate support to 750 000 affected people for the next three months. Within this framework, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) requires USD 9 million to provide immediate crop, livestock and fisheries support to 300 000 hurricane-affected people.
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Educational materials (slide presentations) from FAO covering important biosecurity aspects in poultry farms
Educational materials (slide presentations) from FAO covering important biosecurity aspects in poultry farms
Unlike foot and mouth disease, the avian flu, e-coli or listeria, the COVID-19 pandemic has not spread directly through livestock or
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agriculture commodities, and has therefore not directly disrupted on-farm production. However, the crisis is undermining the ability of farms and agri-enterprises to ensure consistent supplies of food to markets due to enforced closures, labour shortages resulting from illness, and slowdowns in operations caused by physical distancing and lockdowns.
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Educational materials (slide presentations) from FAO covering important biosecurity aspects in poultry farms.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a threat to human and animal health and refers to the ability of
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microorganisms to defy the medicines prescribed. For instance when antibiotics are used improperly, such as an incorrect dose, insufficient duration or wrong frequency, resistance is heightened. The misuse of antimicrobials affects their efficacy, and increasingly more infections and diseases become untreatable. Many gains made in modern medicine throughout the 20th century will be lost, making AMR a global public and animal health issue that requires concerted action. AMR and the use of antimicrobials (AMU) affect food safety and security, people’s livelihoods, as well as economic and agricultural development.
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