Evaluations of social protection interventions across Africa often register significant success in improving household food security indicators, but little or no improvement in individual nutritional outcomes. One reason is under-coverage of poor people; another is the low value of social transfers. This paper reviews experiences with social protection in...

Progress, although limited in magnitude and pace, has been made in reducing child stunting and increasing exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. Nonetheless, while the prevalence of overweight in children under five years may not have changed significantly in recent years, adult obesity continues to rise...

The event gathered representatives of FAO partners in social protection to discuss important achievements made thus far – and the way forward – to continue to increase rural prosperity, food security and resilience through the scale-up of social protection systems. Link to...

Food security is universally recognized as paramount to human well-being. But what exactly does it mean, and what is required to achieve food security? A comprehensive definition put forward by the World Food Summit in 1996 holds that “food security [is] a situation that exists when all people, at...

The efficiency of institutional food procurement programmes (IFPPs) depends on a series of interconnected conditions to reach their stated goal of linking smallholders with institutional markets and demand (e.g. school meals). These programmes rely on governmental will and the availability of public demand. Furthermore, they require institutional changes and...

The development and implementation of an efficient institutional food procurement programme (IFPP —which aims to link smallholder producers to institutional markets and promote development of food supply systems—is not a simple or straightforward task. It requires a series of conditions that must be coordinated and matched together. These conditions...

Although one of the hallmarks of an effective development intervention is its successful implementation across a variety of contexts, programme replication is often overlooked. In a recent project, the International Food Policy Research Institute adapted a well-regarded Brazilian agricultural intervention, Fomento, for implementation and evaluation in two African countries,...

Cities are rising as powerful agents in the world of food, says a new report from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), and they are finding innovative ways to put in place policies that take on challenges in global food systems. The report shows that...

FAO Social Protection Framework presents the Organization’s vision and approach to social protection. FAO recognizes the critical role social protection plays in furthering and accelerating progress around food security and nutrition, agriculture development, rural poverty and resilience building. Link to French version Link to Spanish...

The report sheds some light on the nature of the challenges that agriculture and food systems are facing now and throughout the 21st century, and provides some insights as to what is at stake and what needs to be done. What emerges is that “business as usual” is no...

The right to adequate food lies at the heart of the mandate of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). That concept takes into consideration the availability, access and adequacy of food, and that individuals, alone or in community with others, may acquire food through their...

This paper identifies conceptual synergies and dissonances between food security and income security. It considers the contribution of mainstream social protection instruments, such as cash transfers, to food security. The paper presents specific food security policies that would strengthen the ability of national social protection floors to address food...

This edition of The State of Food and Agriculture makes the case that social protection measures will help break the cycle of rural poverty and vulnerability, when combined with broader agricultural and rural development measures. This report’s key messages are: Social protection programmes reduce poverty and food insecurity. Effective...

Today, FAO released its annual report, The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA). The theme of this year’s SOFA report is Social Protection and Agriculture: breaking the cycle of rural poverty. The theme comes at a crucial time. September marked the Sustainable Development Summit in New York, where the...

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), more than one billion people are undernourished. Over two billion suffer from a lack of essential vitamins and minerals in their food. Nearly six million children die every year from malnutrition or related diseases, that is about...

The World Food Day blog’s main objective is to offer a space for the exchange of ideas related to the goal, purpose, design, implementation and assessment of social protection programmes in developing countries. The blog is written by professionals engaged in field and policy work  and aspires to raise...

This paper explains From Protection to Production (PtoP), a four-year agreement between FAO at DFID to study the impact of cash transfer programmes on household economic decision-making and the local economy in sub-Saharan Africa....

This brief describes key findings of a four-year research project, From  Protection to Production (PtoP), which is implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in collaboration with UNICEF. Oxford Policy Management partnered with FAO to design and implement the qualitative field research component. The PtoP project analyzed the...

Benjamin Davis, team leader of FAO-led From Protection to Production (PtoP) project, explains Social Protection in relation to FAO’s work and mandate. In particular he focuses on impacts of social cash transfers on rural livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa and how these programmes can contribute to broader economic and agriculture...

The Voluntary Guidelines to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security were adopted by the 127th Session of the FAO Council in November 2004. Link to...

The human right to adequate food is recognized in several instruments under international law. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights deals more comprehensively than any other instrument with this right. Pursuant to article 11.1 of the Covenant, States parties recognize “the right of everyone to an...

This report presents the most recent estimates of undernourishment and shows the progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and World Food Summit (WFS) hunger targets. Findings show that progress in hunger reduction at the global level and in many countries has continued but that substantial additional effort is needed in...

This Thematic Study takes a retrospective glance at social protection related developments over a span of a decade from 2004 to 2014. It starts off mentioning the historical shift in development policymaking in the early 2000s from a narrow focus on risks to a wider focus on rights. This...

Summary: Food insecurity refers to both the inability to secure an adequate diet today and the risk of being unable to do so in the future. Social protection is a menu of policy instruments that addresses poverty and vulnerability, through social assistance, social insurance and efforts at social inclusion....

Seventy-five to eighty per cent of the world’s poor do not have comprehensive social protection, yet the total costs of introducing social protection would amount to only 2-6 per cent of global GDP. Poorer States often have not adopted social protection systems because a) the development models supported by...