Kostas Stamoulis, FAO Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Development Department, talks about the importance of women's empowerment and gender equality in rural communities, underlining the essential role of policy work.

Local banks, NGOs and public institutions worked closely to ensure that women could access loans, join associations and have their voices be heard in collective decision-making processes. It also allowed these women and their communities to make collective investments that would increase their production, stabilize and diversify their nutrition, and ultimately achieve a better life.

Now the journey takes Alphonsine 30 minutes. She and other rural women now have access to clean water to irrigate their crops and to use at home. With the cooperation of the UN's joint project 'Rural Women Economic Empowerment '(Rwee), implememted by four UN agencies, FAO built a spring catchment tap for the Nkabikorera Cooperative in the Ngoma district which significantly decreased the amount of time to collect water for nine surrounding villages.

Learn about the Women’s Empowerment Farmer Business Schools (WE-FBS) implemented in Kenya through FAO’s Flexible Multi-Partner Mechanism (FMM). The approach prompts men and women to reflect critically on their roles, resources, and activities in farming, and to develop strategies that are needed to maximize their commercial potential.

In Chadakori, Niger, the Dimitra clubs offered training sessions on composting techniques. Trained farmers were asked to share their knowledge to 5,000 attendees, 60% of which were women. Almost 800 compost pits were built, producing 20 tons of organic matter, introdcuing cost-savings and boosting the richness of farm fields. The FMM subprogramme inspired radio stations to broadcast the results, motivating other villages to also learn about composting. Thanks to the support of the FMM, FAO is promoting inclusive community engagement and women’s empowerment in Africa. 

Rainfed agriculture accounts for more than half of the world’s food production but is facing increasing precipitation variability, driven by climate change. Achieving zero hunger will require improvements in rainwater management to increase productivity. About 45 percent of global rainfed cropland is still under low-input production systems. These are concentrated mostly in lower-income countries, which face multiple challenges in addressing the growing water shortages. Improved water management practices must be combined with the best agronomic practices for enhanced effectiveness.

Coffee is one of the key agricultural commodities in the Government of Uganda’s pursuance of economic growth and job creation, especially for the rapidly expanding youth population. A significant number of job opportunities exist for young people along the coffee value chain, not only in production but increasingly in processing, trade and marketing, as well as service provision.

This brief explores the evidence on the relationships between food aid transfers and investments in climate adaptive agriculture using data from Ethiopia, Malawi and United Republic of Tanzania. Four climate adaptive agricultural investments are considered, namely: adoption of cereal-legume intercropping, use of organic fertilizers such as manure and compost, construction of soil and water conservation structures in fields, and investments in livestock diversification.

The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the importance of agriculture in the Pacific Islands for food security and economic development. The crisis has underscored the crucial role of domestic food systems to provide resilience to shocks, livelihood options, self-sufficiency, and insurance against food and nutrition insecurity. However, remoteness from international markets, populations dispersed across many small islands, heightened vulnerability to climate change, and natural resource constraints pose significant challenges for adapting food systems to cope with the impacts of COVID-19.

Livelihoods are rural people’s greatest defense against hunger and malnutrition. Crises undermine rural livelihoods and erode people’s capacity to cope with the next shock. In humanitarian contexts, FAO brings wide-ranging technical expertise and operational experience to the fore to safeguard livelihoods and enable crisis-hit and at-risk people to access and start producing food as quickly as possible. Protecting livelihoods by providing emergency agricultural assistance from the onset of a crisis is crucial to save lives, while enabling people to produce food and earn an income.