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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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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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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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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Global food prices continue rising in October

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks international prices of the most traded food commodities, averaged 100.9 points in October 2020, up 3.1 percent from September and 6.0 percent above its value in October 2019.
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Europe and Central Asia call for more sustainable and innovative agriculture

During the three days of the virtual Conference hosted by Uzbekistan, 31 ministers and vice-ministers from 51 countries actively participated in the discussions, in addition to other 270 delegates and 50 observers from governments, International Organizations, other UN agencies and various partners. More than 1500 people were daily watching the webcast of the Conference.
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Innovation and digitalization key for agriculture development in Europe and Central Asia

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Houlin Zhao, as well as representatives of governments, international organizations, civil society, young farmers and the private sector from Europe and Central Asia today made a strong case for harnessing agricultural innovation and digital technologies.
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UNSCN Knowledge Management Survey

Over the past five years, UNSCN has published a range of papers (visit our Resources library here). We have prepared a short survey to collect your feedback on some of these documents and gain insight to what extent they have served your needs. This will help us sharpen our knowledge management while UNSCN will transition into UN Nutrition in 2021.

The survey should only take around 10 minutes of your time and is open until Wednesday 11 November 2020.

With the evolution of UNSCN to UN Nutrition you are also welcome to share any other comments, experiences or feelings by sending us an email at info@unscn.org

UNSCN publications

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Europe and Central Asia discuss solutions to promote sustainable agri-food systems

The 32nd Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Europe started today as FAO Members from Europe and Central Asia will discuss several challenges facing the region on food and agriculture, particularly how to promote sustainable agri-food systems and healthy diets as well as solutions for youth, employment and developing rural areas.
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