Food Security

The latest African Economic Outlook , published by the OECD, finds that despite a weakened global economy, lower commodity prices, and some serious weather shocks, Africa saw positive economic growth in 2015.

FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning Systems (GIEWS) has released several new country briefs for Africa south of the Sahara. This series of briefs provides an overview of the food security situation in monitored countries, focusing on the current agricultural season, harvests prospects for staple food crops and livestock, estimates and forecasts of cereal production, and food price and food policy trends.

This was first published as an IFPRI blog .

The recently adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) prioritize improved nutrition and environmental sustainability. Chapter 6 of the 2016 Global Food Policy Report highlights the need to reach this goal by adapting food systems to support nutritious and sustainably-produced diets throughout the world.

Agricultural growth can stem from a multitude of factors, including increased investment in inputs and rural infrastructure, expanded land dedicated to cropping, a more productive workforce, and favorable prices on local and international markets. Over the past decade, Ethiopia has experienced strong agricultural growth due to a number of these factors, according to a new research note and related working paper from IFPRI’s Ethiopia Strategy Support Program ; however, the country also faces a number of challenges to continued growth in the future.

A new book by the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) , with support from the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) , examines the stability pillar of FAO’s four pillars of food security , focusing specifically on price volatility and extreme price events in food markets.