Agriculture Development, Food Security and Nutrition

A/RES/68/233No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 25Agriculture development, food security and nutrition, published in 2014.

What other versions does this mandate have?

13 versions · 2014–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/157

2025A/RES/80/157Agriculture development, food security and nutritionLatestCompare with previous version
2024A/RES/79/227Agriculture development, food security and nutritionCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/168Agriculture development, food security and nutritionCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/77/186Agriculture development, food security and nutritionCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/222Agriculture development, food security and nutritionCompare with previous version

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

What subjects does this mandate have?

11 topics

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

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2014.

2014A/69/279Agriculture 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?

45 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;

Reiterates the need to adequately and urgently address agriculture development, food security and nutrition 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 improving food security and nutrition is a global challenge and a national policy responsibility and that any plans for addressing this challenge in the context of eradicating poverty must be nationally articulated, designed, owned, led and built in consultation with all key stakeholders at the national level, as appropriate, and urges Member States, especially those affected, 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 Secretary-General’s Zero Hunger Challenge, and the aim of a world free from hunger, and takes note of the progress made in improving cooperation, coordination and coherence by all stakeholders to overcome the challenges of hunger and malnutrition;

Also welcomes the six global targets set by the World Health Assembly to address global malnutrition;

Takes note of the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact, signed by more than 100 countries, companies and civil society organizations, to reduce the number of stunted children by 20 million by 2020 and the financial commitments made to support this goal;

Also takes note of the report of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on its thirty-eighth session,17 which highlights, inter alia, the importance of the development of measures to protect Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems;

Welcomes the increased political commitment by Member States to tackle hunger and undernutrition, in this regard welcomes the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, and encourages Member States to engage in the SUN Movement at the global and country levels to further reduce global hunger and undernutrition, in particular in women, especially pregnant and lactating women, and children under age 2;

Recognizes the need to strengthen national information systems, as appropriate, in addressing the challenges of malnutrition and in assessing progress in order to stimulate coordinated and informed action at national, regional and global levels;

Welcomes the activities of the International Year of Quinoa, 2013, which have focused attention on the important role of quinoa, its biodiversity and nutritional value, as a way of promoting the traditional knowledge of the Andean and other indigenous peoples, contributing to the achievement of food security, improved nutrition and poverty eradication, raising awareness of their contribution to social, economic and environmental development and sharing good practices in the implementation of the International Year;

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, and notes the benefit of such public and private investment and engagement to local smallholders with regard to promoting food security and improving nutrition outcomes;

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, which are to be submitted for endorsement by the Committee on World Food Security at its forty-first session in October 2014, 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 measures to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable groups and food systems, which can also have a wider positive impact, emphasizing adaptation to climate change as a major concern and objective for all farmers and food producers, especially small-scale producers;

Reaffirms the necessity to promote, enhance and support more sustainable agriculture, including crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, that improves food security, eradicates hunger and is economically viable, while conserving land, water, plant and animal genetic resources, biodiversity and ecosystems and enhancing resilience to climate change and natural disasters, and further recognizes the need to maintain natural ecological processes that support food production systems;

Stresses the need to enhance sustainable livestock production systems, including through improving pasture land and irrigation schemes, in line with national policies, legislation, rules and regulations, enhanced sustainable water management systems and efforts to eradicate and prevent the spread of animal diseases, recognizing that the livelihoods of farmers, including pastoralists, and the health of livestock are intertwined;

Also stresses the crucial role of healthy marine ecosystems, sustainable fisheries and sustainable aquaculture for food security and nutrition and in providing for the livelihoods of millions of people;

Reaffirms the need to strive for a comprehensive twin-track approach to food security and nutrition 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 in the context of national food security;

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 of 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 support 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 empower women, in particular rural women, as well as to address their own food and nutritional needs and those 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 and farmers’ networks by providing easy access to affordable finance, promoting the adoption of sustainable production techniques and investment in rural infrastructure and irrigation and strengthening marketing mechanisms and support for the participation of women in economic activities;

Remains deeply concerned about the recurring food insecurity and undernutrition in different regions of the world and their 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 launch of the Regional Road Map under the Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative, Sahel, and emphasizes the need to improve the synergy, coherence and effectiveness of resilience initiatives in the region, including the need to link emergency and relief actions and longer-term strategies and programmes aimed at addressing the root causes of food crises, to build resilience among vulnerable populations in the Sahel;

Notes the challenges faced by indigenous peoples in the context of food security and nutrition, 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 role of indigenous peoples and small farmers and their traditional seed supply systems in the conservation of biodiversity and food security;

Also recognizes the contribution made thus far by early warning systems, and underlines that the reliability and timeliness of such 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;

Further 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;

Recognizes the importance of concrete initiatives aimed at improving protection for the most vulnerable against excessive price volatility through risk management strategies, tools and instruments, such as the pilot project led by the Economic Community of West African States for a targeted regional emergency humanitarian food reserve;

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, and urges national, regional and international strategies to promote the participation of farmers, especially smallholder farmers, including women, in community, national, regional and international markets;

Welcomes the convening of the Ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization, in Bali, Indonesia, in the first week of December 2013;

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;

Also 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, 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 sustainable agriculture development, food security and nutrition;

Further 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, appropriate facilities for the storage and packaging of food and encouraging sustainable consumption patterns;

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 and nutrition;

Encourages international, regional and national efforts to strengthen the productive capacity of developing countries, in particular their small-scale producers, by, inter alia, improving the proper functioning of markets, storage, rural infrastructure, research and pre-harvest and post-harvest practices, in order to enhance the production, productivity and nutritional quality of food crops and promote sustainable practices in pre-harvest and post-harvest agricultural activities;

Also encourages countries to give due consideration to the dissemination, promotion and implementation of 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;

Looks forward to the implementation of the International Year of Family Farming, 2014, recognizes the important contribution that family farming and smallholder farming can play in providing food security, reducing malnutrition and eradicating poverty in the attainment of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, stresses the importance of development strategies for family farming and smallholder farming, as appropriate, and invites Member States, United Nations agencies, farmers’ organizations and other partners to join efforts to successfully observe the International Year;

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;

Encourages Member States and all stakeholders to give appropriate consideration to agriculture development, food security and nutrition in the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda;

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

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

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Who created this mandate?

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What does this mandate say?

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