New partnership to boost bamboo and rattan’s contribution to sustainable development

A new five-year partnership signed today between the International Bamboo and Rattan Organization (INBAR)and FAO aims to scale up the possibilities of bamboo and rattan to reduce rural poverty and increase carbon sequestration.
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Drug-resistant infections threaten to become next pandemic

This World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (18-24 November), the Organization highlights that everyone has a role to play to combat AMR, including stakeholders across the food and agriculture sectors, and rolls out recommendations to curb the spread of AMR.
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2020 Hunger Free Communities (Virtual) Summit

18-19 November 2020, 12:00 – 5:30PM ET
Register here

Hosted by the Alliance to End Hunger, the goals of the 2020 Hunger Free Communities Virtual Summit are to understand the changing landscape of hunger and build a resilient post-pandemic America.

We will accomplish this by:

  • Highlighting effective policies and methods for reducing community food insecurity
  • Sharing best practices and resources
  • Demonstrating effective multi-sector collaborations
  • Building skills among practitioners

Agenda

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Global Climate Fund approves $160 million to support FAO-led projects

FAO has helped Argentina, Guatemala and Sudan obtain $82 million, $66.6 million and $10 million respectively to combat deforestation and boost resilience of the vulnerable communities to climate change.
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Nourishing the Post COVID-19 World: A special session of the UNIATF’s COVID-19 Meetings

On November 13th the UNIATF COVID-19 Meeting had a special session on nutrition titled ‘Nourishing the Post COVID-19 World’. Facilitated by UNSCN the session brought together representatives of the UNIATF’s Nutrition and NCDs thematic working group from FAO, UNICEF, WFP, IDLO and WHO to amplify the messages in their joint narrative on the importance of nutrition in the COVID-19 response.

See the full recording here

Presenter Slides (1.4MB)

Highlights from the Session include:

  • The interlinkages between nutrition and COVID-19 with malnutrition both a risk factor for infection severity, and at risk of intensification due to the economic and social impacts of COVID-19 and the opportunity to mitigate this impact through nourishing action by Stineke Oenema, UNSCN
  • An introduction to the Food Systems Summit 2021 and its preparatory dialogues to foster inclusion by Jamie Morrison, FAO
  • An overview of the impact of COVID-19 on breastfeeding and complementary feeding as well as the long turn consequences on the NCD Burden, including a summary of urgent actions for governments and policy makers to mitigate these risks by Fatmata Fatima Sesay, UNICEF
  • The impacts of COVID-19 and actions WFP is taking to help mitigate its impact on the nutrition of school-age children through school based programmes, by Maree Bouterakos, WFP
  • Legal perspectives on the response to the food crisis during COVID-19, including details on a pilot project in Honduras and Uganda by Giulia Zevi, IDLO
  • Results of the COVID-19 preparedness and response plans through an NCD lens by Melanie Cowen, WHO
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FAO’s Food Outlook: Developing countries buoy global food trade

Global trade in food products has proven remarkably resilient during the pandemic, with developing countries even managing to increase export revenues, according to FAO's new Food Outlook.
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FAO calls for making agri-food systems and green spaces part of urban plans

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, today called on local governments to make agri-food systems and green spaces part of their plans, policies and actions to make cities more sustainable and inclusive, as well as to create jobs and promote youth engagement, built on a “green industry, a green environment, green products and a green way of lifestyle,” he said.
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Legal Specialist (P-4), Nutrition Section (UNICEF)

Duty Station: United States

Contract type: Fixed Term Appointment, P-4

Deadline for application: 25 November 2020

Vacancy announcement

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Global Food Security Cluster turns 10: ending hunger is everyone’s job

The Global Food Security Cluster (gFSC), which coordinates life-saving food and livelihoods assistance to people hit by crises, turns 10 this year and marked the anniversary at its bi-annual meeting of global partners held virtually today, with the participation of the FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, the WFP Deputy-Executive Director Amir Abdulla and gFSC partners from NGOs and academia.
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UN food agencies warn of rising levels of acute hunger with potential risk of famine in four hotspots

The world has been put on a heightened famine alert with a new report by two United Nations agencies that contains a stark warning; four countries contain areas that could soon slip into famine if conditions there undergo "any further deterioration over the coming months". These are Burkina Faso in West Africa's Sahel region, northeastern Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.
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Second Global Summit on Food Fortification

6 November 2020, 13.00 – 15.30 CET
Register here
Part of MNF CONNECTED conference

The purpose of the Second Global Summit on Food Fortification Launch Event is to mobilize high-level political will to pursue the unfinished agenda on large scale fortification and biofortification and to demonstrate high-level attention and commitment to the fortification agenda across sectors and stakeholders.

The high-level launch event will:

  • Highlight for a large global audience the significant untapped potential of large-scale fortification and biofortification and the urgency of closing this gap to combat rising malnutrition during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond;
  • Celebrate Progress – focusing on salt iodization as an inspiring global success story with lessons relevant to the fortification unfinished agenda and India as a country that has made significant progress in the 5 years since the first global summit on food fortification in 2015;
  • Present the fortification Unfinished Agenda, including key barriers that must be tackled and promising solutions that should be pursued to ensure that large-scale and biofortification maximize their impact;
  • Promote the Food Systems Summit and N4G as key opportunities to mobilize support for food fortification;
  • Celebrate national progress, and identify key challenges and actions to address them;
  • Call on global and national leaders to do more to accelerate progress on large scale and biofortification.

More info here

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FAO launches Food Coalition to lift food access, sustainable agri-food systems

FAO launched the Food Coalition to prevent the COVID-19 international health emergency from triggering a catastrophic world food crisis.
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