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Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet34th Session of the Regional Conference for the Near East 2018FAO Regional Conferences are where Ministers of agriculture, partner organisations, sister agencies and senior officials of Member Countries meet to elaborate on regional challenges and priorities related to food and agriculture. The Conference in each region aims to promote regional coherence on global policies and political issues. Regional conferences are essential for ensuring the effectiveness of FAO’s regional work but also in defining its work priorities for the following biennium. These regional priorities mirror those of all Member Countries: to develop sustainable agriculture and enhance food security. All actions identified within these objectives feed into the roadmap of the Organization’s work in the region. The 34th Session of FAO Regional Conference for the Near East (NERC34) was held at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, starting on 7 May 2018. The conference stared with a Senior Officers’ Meeting from 7 - 9 May 2018 and a Ministerial Plenary Session followed that on 10 - 11 May 2018. Issues discussed included: • Agro ecology: Adapting to Climate Change in Semi-arid Areas for Sustainable Agricultural Development. • Agricultural Transformation in the Near East and North Africa Region and the Challenge of Youth Employment and Migration. • One Health: Addressing Transboundary Plant, Animal and Fish Pests and Diseases: A Case for Regional Cooperation. • Results and Priorities for FAO in the Near East and North Africa Region.
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Document3rd Regional Multi-Stakeholder Workshop on Food Security and Nutrition
4-6 November 2013, Tunis, Tunisia
2013Also available in:
No results found.The Near East and North Africa region (NENA) faces many structural constraints in meeting its food security and nutrition requirements. High population growth coupled with high unemployment, rising urbanisation and single-sector economies are exacerbated by scarce natural resources (particularly arable land and water) and climate-change, which have made the Region dependent on imported food. The region has also been impacted by the global financial economic crises, global food price volatility, and the slowdown of economic investment. The ongoing social and political transition also poses several challenges; this includes social and political unrest such as armed conflict, civil insecurity, disruption of economic activities and interruptions to cross-border livelihood movements, as well as the rising costs of subsidies The above mentioned as well as numerous other food security challenges in the region continue to be a source of concern for policy makers. As a result, during the 31st F AO Near East Regional Conference (NERC) held in Rome, Italy, from the 14th-18th May 2012, the Member Countries agreed on the importance of organising a regional food security and nutrition workshop to prepare for the 39th CFS Plenary Session. Building on the successful experiences of the first and second Regional Multi-Stakeholder Workshops on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN), that took place in Cairo and Khartoum in 2011 and 2012, respectively, the event’s objective was to contribute to a more effective food security and nutrition governance mechanism. The workshop also provided a platform where countries and other participants could provide policy inputs into the Committee on World Food Security’s (CFS) consultative process on responsible agricultural investment (RAI) and an agenda for action on food security in protracted crises, a draft technical paper on food security in the NENA region and a draft strategy document on the reduction of food waste and food loss. Key topics of rele vance to the region and to the CFS were discussed through a participatory process in order to ensure that the CFS Plenary sessions and inter-sessional activities are based on latest developments on the ground. -
Book (stand-alone)Food policies and their implications on overweight and obesity trends in selected countries in the Near East and North Africa region
Regional Program Working Paper No. 30
2020Also available in:
No results found.Regional and global trends in body weight show that the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region countries, especially the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries, have the highest average body mass index and highest rates of overweight and obesity in the world. There exist several explanations that expound the high rates of overweight and obesity in most NENA countries, including the nutrition transition, urbanization, changes in lifestyle, and consequent reduction of physical activities. This study examines the implication of food policies, mainly trade and government food subsidies, on evolving nutritional transitions and associated body weight outcomes. We examine the evolution of trade (food) policies, food systems, and body weight outcomes across selected countries in the NENA region – Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq. In particular, we investigate the implications of important trade (food) policies in shaping diets and food systems as well as their implications on public health outcomes, mainly the rising levels of overweight and obesity in the NENA region. We provide a simple conceptual framework through which trade policies (tariff rates) and domestic government food policies (subsidies) may affect food systems and nutritional outcomes. An important and innovative feature of this study is that it compiles several macro- and micro-level datasets that allow both macro and micro-level analyses of the evolution of trade (food) policies and associated obesity trends. This approach helps to at least partly overcome the data scarcity that complicates rigorous policy research in the NENA region. Overweight and obesity rates have almost doubled between 1975 and 2016, with varying rates and trends across regions. For instance, whereas body weight in the NENA region was comparable with that found in high-income countries in the early years, after the 1990s regional overweight and obesity rates became much higher than those in high-income countries. Specifically, while most high-income countries are experiencing a relative slowing of increases in overweight rates, the trend for the NENA region continues to increase at higher rates. The evolution of overweight rates for the GCC countries are even more concerning. These trends are likely to contribute to the already high burden of non-communicable diseases in the NENA region. Contrary to the conventional view that overweight and obesity rates are urban problems, our findings show that rural body weight has been rising over the past few decades, sometimes at higher rates than in urban areas.
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