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Land and water in action

Sustainable use of land and water resources for enhanced food security in Europe and Central Asia









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    Book (series)
    Europe and Central Asia Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2024
    Managing water sustainably for improved food security and nutrition
    2025
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    This report provides the latest updates on hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in Europe and Central Asia, including the cost and affordability of healthy diets. It also explores the central theme of water security, highlighting its critical connections to agriculture, food security and nutrition.While the region has made progress in reducing hunger and food insecurity (SDG Target 2.1), challenges remain in eliminating all forms of malnutrition (SDG Target 2.2). Food insecurity and malnutrition persist in some countries, influenced by income levels, socioeconomic factors and climate risks. In 2023, global undernourishment remained at 9.1 percent, whereas the region has stayed below 2.5 percent since 2005, except in Central Asia (3 percent in 2023 and marginally higher in 2022). Food insecurity affected 11.5 percent of the population in 2023, well below the global average (28.9 percent).Many countries have reduced child stunting, wasting and low birthweight, but childhood overweight, anaemia in women aged 15–49, and adult obesity remain concerns. In 2022, 64.3 million people in the region couldn’t afford a healthy diet, though numbers have declined after the pandemic. At 16.3 percent, Central Asia had the highest unaffordability rate.Water security challenges – including scarcity, ageing infrastructure, pollution and weak governance – affect Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Western Balkans. Poor water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure in some areas impacts nutrition and health. The report recommends improving water conservation and recycling and exploring the use of alternative sources such as desalination and groundwater. Strengthening transboundary cooperation and promoting sustainable water management are crucial. Reducing agriculture’s water footprint through efficient crop choices can enhance climate resilience and long-term water sustainability.
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    Project
    Enhancing Land and Water Resources Management in Somaliland and Puntland - GCP/SOM/059/EC 2023
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    The FAO Somalia Water and Land Information Management (SWALIM) programmehas been successfully operating in Somalia for almost 20 years, serving government institutions, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), development agencies, and United Nations bodies engaged in assisting Somali communities whose lives and livelihoods depend directly on water and land resources. The programmeprovides high quality water and land information, crucial to relief, rehabilitation and development initiatives in the country, to support sustainable water and land resources development and management. The current project, funded by the European Union, is integral to the FAO-SWALIM programmeand was designed specifically to address the requirements of Somaliland and Puntland. The project aimed to strengthen the capacity of all responsible government institutions by creating an Information Management Centre (IMC) able to provide the information and services required to design strategies, plans and infrastructures to improve access to water and sustainable use of land resources, especially for rural communities.
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    Book (stand-alone)
    European good practices on land banking
    FAO study and recommendations
    2022
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    Many countries in Western Europe have a long tradition of applying land banking as part of the integrated toolbox of land management instruments. As with land consolidation, the traditional purpose of land banking has been to support agriculture and rural development by reducing land fragmentation and facilitating the enlargement of farms. In Western Europe, the objectives of land banking have developed over the last decades, and today, in several countries, the instrument is applied in a multi-purpose approach together with land consolidation. In most countries, land banking shares the objectives of land consolidation, which in addition to continued agricultural development, supports the implementation of public projects in rural areas where private landowners and farmers are requested to give up agricultural land, for example, in connection with the construction of infrastructure projects such as highways and railways or for the implementation of public projects related to nature restoration, afforestation or climate change adaptation and mitigation. In a few Western European countries, land banking is also applied on use rights, where a lease facilitation approach connects owners of agricultural land not using their land and often leaving it abandoned, with local farmers interested in farming more land. This study first analyses and identifies good European practices on land banking, discusses experiences from the introduction of land banking instruments in countries in Central Europe. Finally, it provides policy recommendations for the introduction of land banking, with a focus on countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

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