Agriculture Development and Food Security

A/RES/67/228No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 26Agriculture development and food security, published in 2013.

What other versions does this mandate have?

5 versions · 2009–2013

2013A/RES/67/228Agriculture development and food securityLatestCompare with previous version
2012A/RES/66/220Agriculture development and food securityCompare with previous version
2011A/RES/65/178Agriculture development and food securityCompare with previous version
2010A/RES/64/224Agriculture development and food securityCompare with previous version
2009A/RES/63/235Agriculture development and food security

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

13 topics

Agricultural Development Agricultural Production Agricultural Trade Capacity Building Cooperation Between Organizations Development Strategies Food Problems Food Security International Organizations International Trade Market Access Quinoa Sustainable Agriculture

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2013.

2013A/68/311Agriculture development, food security and nutrition report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

36 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;

Reiterates the need to adequately and urgently address agriculture development and food security in the context of national, regional and international development policies, taking into account the importance of enhancing synergies between sustainable agriculture practices, biodiversity, food security, nutrition and development policies;

Also reiterates the importance of developing countries determining their own food security strategies, that food security and nutrition is a global challenge and a national policy responsibility and that any plans for addressing food security challenges and the eradication of poverty in relation to food security must be nationally articulated, designed, owned and led and built in consultation with all key stakeholders at the national level, as appropriate, and urges Member States, especially those that suffer from food insecurity, to make food security and nutrition a high priority and to reflect this in their national programmes and budgets;

Calls upon the international community to support Africa in the implementation of the various programmes under the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, especially the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme;

Welcomes the Zero Hunger Challenge initiative launched by the Secretary-General at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development as a vision for a future free from hunger;

Also welcomes the proclamation by the General Assembly, in its resolution 66/221, of 2013 as the International Year of Quinoa and the global launch of the Year, to be held on 31 January 2013, and encourages all Member States, the organizations of the United Nations system and all other relevant stakeholders to take advantage of the Year as a way of promoting the traditional knowledge of the Andean and other indigenous peoples, contributing to the achievement of food security, nutrition and poverty eradication and raising awareness of their contribution to social, economic and environmental development, and to share good practices on the implementation of activities during the Year, as indicated in the master plan of activities for the Year, entitled “A future sown thousands of years ago”, and recalls paragraph 3 of the report of the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on its 144th session;

Takes note of the report of the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on its 144th session, which stresses the importance of the Organization’s support to globally important agriculture heritage systems;

Welcomes the Scaling Up Nutrition movement, which encourages increased political commitment and programmatic alignment to reduce global hunger and undernutrition, with emphasis on tackling undernutrition in women, especially pregnant and lactating women, and children under 2 years of age;

Stresses the need to address the root causes of excessive food price volatility, including its structural causes, at all levels, and the need to manage the risks linked to excessively volatile prices in agriculture commodities and their consequences for global food security and nutrition, as well as for smallholder farmers and poor urban-dwellers;

Also stresses the need to increase sustainable agricultural production and productivity globally, noting the diversity of agricultural conditions and systems, including through improving the functioning of markets and trading systems and strengthening international cooperation, particularly for developing countries, and by increasing public and private investment in sustainable agriculture, land management and rural development;

Encourages all stakeholders to take part in the inclusive consultation and negotiation processes within the Committee on World Food Security for the development and broader ownership of principles for responsible agricultural investment that enhances food security and nutrition, taking into account existing frameworks, such as the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the World Bank;

Recognizes the need to increase the resilience of food and agricultural production to climate change, and encourages efforts at all levels to support climate-sensitive agricultural practices, including agroforestry, conservation agriculture, water management schemes, drought- and flood-resistant seeds and sustainable livestock management, including the resilience of vulnerable groups and food systems, which can also have a wider positive impact, emphasizing adaptation and mitigation to climate change as a major concern and objective for all farmers and food producers, especially small-scale producers;

Reaffirms the need to strive for a comprehensive twin-track approach to food security and nutrition security that consists of direct action to immediately tackle hunger for the most vulnerable and medium- and long-term sustainable agriculture, food security and nutrition; and rural development programmes to eliminate the root causes of hunger and poverty, including through the progressive realization of the right to adequate food;

Encourages efforts at all levels to establish and strengthen social protection measures and programmes, including national safety nets and protection programmes for the needy and vulnerable, such as food and cash-for-work, cash transfer and voucher programmes, school feeding programmes and mother-and-child nutrition programmes, and in this regard underlines the importance of increasing investment, capacity-building and systems development;

Reaffirms the need to promote a significant expansion of research on food, nutrition and agriculture, extension services, training and education, and their funding, from all sources, to improve agricultural productivity and sustainability in order to strengthen agriculture as a key sector to promote development and to build up resilience to ensure better recovery from crisis and shock, including by strengthening the work of the reformed Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research so as to enhance its development impact, supporting national research systems, public universities and research institutions, and promoting technology transfer on mutually agreed terms, the voluntary sharing of knowledge and practices and research to adapt to and mitigate climate change and improve equitable access to research results and technologies on mutually agreed terms at the national, regional and international levels, while giving due consideration to the preservation of genetic resources;

Calls for closing the gender gap in access to productive resources in agriculture, noting with concern that the gender gap persists for many assets, inputs and services, and stresses the need to invest in and strengthen efforts to meet the basic needs of rural women, including needs relating to their food and nutritional security and that of their families, and to promote adequate standards of living for them as well as decent conditions for work and access to local, regional and global markets;

Invites Governments and international organizations, in collaboration with cooperatives and cooperative organizations, to promote, as appropriate, the growth of agricultural cooperatives through easy access to affordable finance, the adoption of sustainable production techniques, investment in rural infrastructure and irrigation, strengthened marketing mechanisms and support for the participation of women in economic activities;

Remains deeply concerned about the recurring food insecurity in different regions of the world and its ongoing negative impact on health and nutrition, especially in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, and in this regard underlines the urgent need for joint efforts at all levels to respond to the situation in a coherent and effective manner;

Welcomes the Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative – Sahel, which aims to promote greater resilience among vulnerable populations in the Sahel by creating greater synergy between emergency actions and long-term strategies aimed at addressing the root causes of food crises, in partnership with the Economic Community of West African States, the West African Economic and Monetary Union and the Permanent Inter-State Committee on Drought Control in the Sahel;

Notes the challenges faced by indigenous peoples in the context of food security, and in this regard calls upon States to take special actions to combat the root causes of the disproportionately high level of hunger and malnutrition among indigenous peoples;

Recognizes the contribution made thus far by early warning systems, and underlines that the reliability and timeliness of systems should be strengthened at the national, regional and international levels, with a focus on countries that are particularly vulnerable to price shocks and food emergencies;

Also recognizes the importance of timely, accurate and transparent information in helping to address excessive food price volatility, notes global and regional initiatives, including the Agricultural Market Information System and its Rapid Response Forum, hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Food Security Information System of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Asia-Pacific Information Platform on Food Security, and urges international organizations, private sector actors and Governments to participate and ensure the public dissemination of timely and quality food market information products;

Emphasizes the need to revitalize the agriculture and rural development sectors, notably in developing countries, in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner, and underlines the importance of taking the necessary actions to better address the needs of rural communities through, inter alia, enhancing access by agricultural producers, in particular small producers, women, indigenous peoples and people living in vulnerable situations, to credit and other financial services, markets, secure land tenure, health care, social services, education, training, knowledge and appropriate and affordable technologies, including for efficient irrigation, reuse of treated wastewater and water harvesting and storage;

Urges Member States and international organizations to pursue policies and strategies that improve the functioning of national, regional and international markets and ensure equitable access for all to those markets, especially smallholder and women farmers in developing countries, notes the importance of non-trade-distorting special measures that are consistent with the rules of the World Trade Organization aimed at creating incentives for smallholder farmers in developing countries to enable them to increase their productivity and to compete on a more equal footing in world food markets, and urges Member States to refrain from taking measures that are inconsistent with the rules of the World Trade Organization and that have adverse impacts on global, regional and national food security;

Stresses that a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system will promote agriculture and rural development in developing countries and contribute to world food security, urges national, regional and international strategies to promote the participation of farmers, especially smallholder farmers, including women, in community, national, regional and international markets, and emphasizes that the successful conclusion of the Doha Development Round, in accordance with its mandate, would constitute a key action towards the achievement of food security;

Also stresses the need to remove food export restrictions or extraordinary taxes on food purchased for non-commercial humanitarian purposes by the World Food Programme, and not to impose them in the future;

Further stresses the need to continue to strengthen cooperation among the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Programme, the regional commissions and all other relevant entities of the United Nations system and other intergovernmental organizations, the international financial institutions and international trade and economic institutions, in accordance with their respective mandates, in order to increase their effectiveness, as well as to strengthen cooperation with non-governmental organizations and the public and private sectors in promoting and strengthening efforts towards agriculture development and food security and nutrition;

Stresses the need to significantly reduce post-harvest and other food losses and waste throughout the food supply chain through, inter alia, increased promotion of appropriate harvesting practices, agro-food processing and appropriate facilities for the storage and packaging of food;

Recognizes the important role and inclusive nature of the Committee on World Food Security as a key organ in addressing the issue of global food security, including in the context of the global partnership for food security;

Encourages international, regional and national efforts to strengthen the capacity of developing countries, in particular their small-scale producers, in order to enhance the production, productivity and nutritional quality of food crops and to promote sustainable practices in pre-harvest and post-harvest agricultural activities;

Encourages countries to give due consideration to implementing the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security,Error: Reference source not found as endorsed by the Committee on World Food Security on 11 May 2012;

Requests the relevant entities of the United Nations system, in accordance with their respective mandates and in the most cost-effective manner, to ensure the speedy dissemination and promotion of the Guidelines;

Reaffirms the commitments to making every effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 in support of developing countries, in particular those countries that are lagging most behind and those Goals that are most off track, thus improving the lives of the poorest people;

Invites Member States and other stakeholders to give appropriate consideration to the issue of agriculture development, food security and nutrition in the discussions on the post-2015 development agenda;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session on developments related to issues highlighted in the present resolution;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its sixty-eighth session an item entitled “Agriculture development, food security and nutrition”.

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Who created this mandate?

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