Achieving the SDG targets requires the coordination of multiple government sectors. This paper is aimed at national and international actors who seek to work across sectors to achieve common development goals. Building on the available literature and on regional country studies, it emphasizes the role of multistakeholder collaboration at local and national levels.

This synthesis report for the regional workshop for Africa on "A new approach for mainstreaming Sustainable Food and Agriculture in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals" provides an overview of the presentations, a brief report on the discussions, and summaries of the conclusions.

Violent conflict has increased in recent decades. The number of people worldwide who live in settings where conflict and violence are a daily occurrence is increasing. By 2030, it is estimated that more than half of all people living in poverty will be found in countries affected by high levels of violence. These conflict dynamics have a negative impact on households’ food security. Agriculture, natural resources, food security and nutrition can be sources of peace or conflict, crisis or recovery, tragedy or healing. Underpinning this is ensuring that the Organization’s projects and interventions are conflict-sensitive so that all stakeholders understand the dynamics of the diverse contexts in which FAO works. Especially in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, we need to make sure that our work avoids contributing to divisions, disputes and violent conflict, and does no harm. All that we do – both by ourselves and through partnerships – should follow this approach. We can also identify where FAO can positively contribute to social cohesion and peace – and these efforts must be rooted in robust theories of change. FAO is placing increasing emphasis on ensuring that our interventions make a positive contribution to peace – an objective shared across the United Nations system, and increasingly a requirement of our partners and donors. The focus of this how-to guide is to elaborate the pathways through which the Organization can optimize deliberate contributions to peace, and inform the design, adaptation and impact measurement of its interventions. In recent years, FAO has developed corporate tools, guidance and training on conflict sensitivity and context analysis. Operationalizing pathways to sustaining peace in the context of Agenda 2030 – A how-to guide is another crucial document in that series, developed through collaboration between the FAO Conflict and Peace Unit and Interpeace in the context of a wider partnership between the two Organizations. Following broad consultation across the Organization, this document provides operational guidance and inspiration to FAO project and technical staff on how our work can enhance FAO’s contributions to peace – and how to measure those contributions. It is part of an ongoing process, which complements FAO’s efforts through its Strategic Framework to support the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, for better production, better nutrition, better environment and better life, leaving no one behind.

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets presents a universally accepted and comprehensive framework addressing all aspects and dimensions of sustainability. The integration of the climate-smart agriculture (CSA) approach with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda provides an opportunity to enhance the overall sustainability of CSA results and synergize CSA interventions with other sustainable development efforts. To achieve this integration, a clear understanding of how the CSA implementation process can engage with the 2030 Agenda throughout the five CSA implementation steps is required. Moreover, the interlinkages between CSA objectives and the SDGs and associated targets need to be well understood – including both potential synergies and trade-offs. This publication presents an assessment and mapping of CSA-SDG interlinkages. These provide entry points for targeted CSA planning to enhance synergies and reduce potential trade-offs between CSA objectives and SDGs. The publication also provides guidelines for the integration of the CSA implementation steps with the 2030 Agenda. An important aspect of these guidelines is the integration with the Paris Agreement – and the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) pledged by countries – as a complementary process to the 2030 Agenda and the central reference point for countries’ commitments to climate action.

This evaluation assesses the extent to which FAO adopted an effective, coherent and transformative approach to its work on climate action from 2015 to 2020, by contributing to the achievement of SDG 13 targets and the Paris Agreement. The methodology included portfolio analysis, quantitative content analysis of over 500 documents, participatory stakeholder workshops, desk reviews, interviews with 488 stakeholders, analysis of key FAO products, 3 global surveys, and 13 country case studies. The evaluation’s findings are (i) FAO’s Strategic Framework is aligned with SDG 13 and the Paris Agreement. However, FAO has not expressed a long-term vision on its leadership role in agriculture for climate action; nor does FAO governance yet reflect a clear and strategic focus on its mission on climate action; (ii) The 2017 Climate Change Strategy has effectively supported FAO’s work, but it is not fully integrated into corporate decision-making; (iii) FAO has made relevant contributions by supporting national capacity building for climate action; (iv) FAO’s contributions to SDG 13 and the uptake of products and tools are not systematically monitored and reported; (v) There is little alignment of portfolios between divisions and no systematic approach to trade-offs. Consequently, the root causes of climate change on agriculture are not being addressed in an integrated way; (vi) FAO has strong capacity, but the current business model results in uneven distribution of human and financial resources and in fragmented, short-term projects reach; (vii) FAO contributed to climate adaptation and mitigation by collaborating with Members and other partners, although it has engaged less in innovative partnerships with the private sector, financing institutions and civil society; (viii) FAO has progressed on the inclusion of gender-specific climate action initiatives. The recommendations of the evaluation include developing a corporate narrative on climate change and food systems; formulating a new Climate Change Strategy and action plan; improving the climate change labelling of its project portfolio; mainstreaming climate action into all offices, divisions and levels, and including coordination and guidance to embed procedures in the project cycle, quality assurance and learning mechanisms; adopting a climate action-focused programmatic approach; running an assessment to identify capacity gaps, needs and opportunities and, accordingly, strengthening the capacity of staffing, funding and inter-office communication; enhancing its partnerships and seeking out innovative partnerships; and mainstreaming the core “leave no one behind” by including women, youth, the extreme poor, indigenous peoples and other vulnerable groups.

This edited volume documents the intellectual influence of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) through its flagship publication, the World Economic and Social Survey (WESS) on its 70th Anniversary. First published in 1948, as World Economic Report, WESS is the oldest continuous post-World War II publication recording and analysing the performance of the global economy and social development trends. It offers relevant policy recommendations and highlights how well the United Nation's (UN) annual report has tracked global economic and social conditions, and how its analyses influenced and were influenced by the prevailing development discourse during the past seven decades. It also critically reflects on its policy recommendations and their influence on actual policy-making and the shaping of the world economy. The World Economy through the Lens of the United Nations reflects on this report, amongst others, to provide valuable insights on global economic challenges and their differential impacts on different groups of countries requiring global policy coordination as well as context specific policy responses. It demonstrates that UN reports have often been ahead of the curve and played a critical role in policy debate, especially in the area of international policy coordination and coherence for balanced global development, and offers rich and path-breaking analyses of contemporary problems of growth, development, trade and stabilization.

Despite the legal and policy foundation of BiH, gender considerations have only marginally been mainstreamed in state and entity policies on rural development or other sectors related to agriculture. At the state level, the Strategic Plan for Rural Development of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2018-2021) addresses support for women as a cross-cutting initiative but fails to fully mainstream gender. Rather, the strategy includes a stand-alone sub-section on gender equality that presents rather superficial analysis of gender disparities in rural areas and includes no strategic guidance. Measures are suggested for “young people/women” in combination and for improving access to business grants, rural loans and agricultural associations. One monitoring indicator measures “women’s participation” in investment programs for agricultural holdings and diversification of rural economy (Strategic Plan for Rural Development of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2018-2021). The inconsistent application of gender mainstreaming to policy development and the very limited capacity of most line ministries to include a gender perspective in their core work contribute to a situation in which gender equality is poorly reflected in state policies that concern agriculture and rural development. Meanwhile, rural areas are marked by women’s poverty, which is linked to their economic dependence, over representation in informal and unpaid work, and the fact that elderly rural women in particular tend not to be covered by the pension system and are often living alone because they are widowed.

This report explores the alignment of aquaculture with the 2030 agenda's goals and targets, suggesting that existing guidance needs strengthening in cross-cutting areas - such as poverty alleviation and resource use efficiency.