OFFER OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
FAO – Bridging forests, climate and food systems and addressing deforestation risks in agricultural supply chains
Category: Targeted technical advice; Project Development; Investment Planning; Finance
Key feature of this offer: Decoupling agricultural production from deforestation and advancing sustainable agrifood systemss
Supporting organization: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- Type of organization: UN system
- Geographic scope of work of the organization: International, Regional, National, Sub-national
Overview
This service provides technical support to integrate forests into national food systems transformation pathways, addressing land use changes such as deforestation and aligning efforts with climate and biodiversity commitments. It highlights forests' carbon sequestration and their role in resilient agrifood systems through ecosystem services like water regulation and pollinator habitats. The service aids countries in adapting to market-based measures related to deforestation, building the capacity of smallholders, cooperatives, and producer organizations and supporting businesses and governments to enhance due diligence related to deforestation in agricultural supply chains.
Key areas of support include advising on sustainable supply chains, due diligence and deforestation risk mitigation; optimizing public investments for sustainable agrifood systems and forest protection; and integrating forest and climate considerations into food systems planning and investment. The service also facilitates potential access to REDD+ and climate finance, fosters cross-country learning, and offers tools to analyze and address deforestation in agricultural production and trade.
What this service offers
- Technical expertise and support on:
- Integrating forest and climate considerations into food systems planning and policies. Conducting due diligence for sustainable agrifood supply chains and adapting to market-based measures related to deforestation.
- Building smallholders’ and producer organizations’ capacities to engage in sustainable supply chains
- Optimizing policy coherence and public investment for sustainable agrifood systems and forest objectives. Utilizing policy support tools to analyze deforestation drivers, identify solutions, and develop actionable strategies for informed policy decisions.
- Workshops and capacity building activities: Virtual or in-person workshops to build country capacities and deliver technical advice.
- Best practice and knowledge sharing sessions: Facilitation of learning and exchanges across countries to support governments, producers and businesses to enhance forest-agriculture synergies and engage in sustainable agrifood supply chains.
Where this has worked
This technical assistance has already been provided by FAO. The team has supported multiple countries to develop policies and implement measures to decouple agricultural supply chains from deforestation and to identify shared pathways for agriculture and forestry sectors to jointly promote sustainable agricultural production and reduce deforestation. It has also supported countries to access REDD+ results-based finance from the Green Climate Fund and climate finance from other sources. The team has developed global knowledge products including the OECD-FAO Handbook on Deforestation and Due Diligence in Agricultural Supply Chains, the technical paper ‘Halting deforestation from agricultural value chains: the role of government’, the ‘solutions tree’ policy support tool to analyze drivers and identify solutions to deforestation, etc. To learn more about this technical assistance and where it has been provided visit the links in the ‘additional resources’ section below.
Eligibility
Mention of commitment to and / or need for actions aiming to reduce deforestation, forest degradation and land use change in national documents, e.g. NDCs, NAPs, NBSAPs and/or food systems national pathways.
Cost and funding
Depending on the country of origin of the request, costs of technical assistance can leverage on ongoing (or planned) projects. Specific cost estimates can therefore only be provided in the technical assistance planning phase.
Duration of support
This will be country specific and will need to be determined in the technical assistance planning phase (if leveraging on ongoing efforts, delivery of the technical assistance may be initiated within 1-3 months of receiving a request).
Interested in this service?
To request this service, National Food Systems Convenors are invited to submit a request to the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub (the Hub). The Hub will review each request and reach out directly to the National Convenor to connect them with the service provider.
For further details, feel free to contact us at [email protected].
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