Climate change threatens our ability to ensure global food security, eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development. About 736 million people live in extreme poverty, and the global response to climate change today will determine how we feed future generations. By 2030, UN member countries have committed to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger for people everywhere. As ending poverty and hunger are at the heart of FAO’s work, the organization is helping countries develop and implement evidence-based pro-poor policies, strategies and programmes that promote inclusive growth and sustainable livelihoods, as well as to increase the resilience, adaptive and coping capacity of poor and vulnerable communities to climate change. In order to achieve this, FAO encourages an integrated Climate-Poverty Approach to support policy development and action by policymakers, government officials, local-level institutions, communities, researchers, and development and humanitarian agencies worldwide. The Approach has been developed with insights from many perspectives, and includes not only climate and poverty aspects, but also indigenous, gender, food security, disaster response, resilience, SIDS and coastal community perspectives, among others. With a series of policy recommendations and tools to improve the design, delivery, and results of synergies and linkages between climate mitigation and adaptation, poverty reduction and food security actions, these synergies and linkages can make significant contributions towards achieving both the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Agreement targets.

Even though substantial progress has been achieved worldwide in reducing both poverty and malnutrition, much is yet to be done. There are signs that the progress made in both dimensions has stalled in recent years. Poor-quality diets have become a major driver for overweight and obesity and associated non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, and some types of cancers. Conflict and climate vulnerability have been identified as major obstacles to reaching Sustainable Development Goal targets related to malnutrition by 2030. In 2019, economic downturns and slowdowns hindered efforts even further. More recently, the COVID-19 crisis has imposed even harsher conditions to countries.Poverty and malnutrition are inevitably linked, and therefore addressing one can help address the other. Given that most of the world’s extremely poor people and stunted children live primarily in rural areas and rely mostly on agriculture, the agriculture and food systems approach can offer an opportunity to reduce both poverty and malnutrition. The food systems approach places equal emphasis on both the supply and demand dimensions that are critical for ensuring healthier diets and better nutrition for poor and vulnerable groups.This special issue of Policy in Focus is dedicated to answering a crucial question: How can a food systems approach be used to design and implement policies and investments that reach those most vulnerable to poverty, hunger, malnutrition, and suboptimal diets? We hope that the contributions contained in this volume, by leading academics and development practitioners, exploring the linkages between nutrition, food systems, and poverty, can help stakeholders and policymakers make inroads towards the promotion of food and nutrition security and the reduction of rural poverty.

Will there be enough food to feed 8 billion people who will live on earth in 25 years times? Surprisingly few people, at least in the industrial countries, seems to be overly concerned with this question. Whereas the world conferences on the environment, on women, human rights or social issues, which were held in recent years were preceded and accompanied by intensive public debate, food does not seem to be a burning issue. Don t we have mountains of surplus food, people ask. Do we not have to pay our farmers to leave their land idle in order not to add to the glut on the world markets? And hasn t the Green Revolution ended famine even in countries like India which used to be a synonym for hungry people? So where is the problem? The advance made in agricultural production since beginning against a background of imminent crisis are indeed remarkable. In only 20 years, yields of major crops like rice, maize and wheat in developing countries went up by 80 per cent, outpacing even the rapid increase in population. But this growth in yields has slowed down in recent years, and the aim of food for all is once again becoming elusive. About 800 million people still do not have access to enough food to meet their basic daily needs, nearly 200 million children suffer from protein and energy deficiencies, 88 countries 44 or them in Africa have a deficit in food production.

Why is food security and nutrition (FSN) seldom a priority in national development planning? One reason is that strategies to reduce food insecurity and malnutrition are principally seen as a concern of the agricultural sector. Specific food insecurity reduction goals and targets are usually absent from most poverty reduction planning instruments. This book synthesises lessons learned from five countries - Bhutan, Cambodia, Kenya, Mozambique and United Republic of Tanzania - in providing policy assistance to better integrate FSN concerns in national policies and planning processes. Effective FSN policies should have strong links to social investment, poverty reduction measures, development policies and above all human dignity. These lessons will inform future FSN related policy assistance to member countries striving to eradicate the plight of hunger and malnutrition.