CFS Policy Convergence Products Database

ensure the provision of technical, financial and capacity building support, and also conducting and sharing of research results on social protection, including through enhanced South-South cooperation.

improve the design and use of social protection interventions to address vulnerability to chronic and acute food insecurity, considering:

provide predictable and reliable access to social protection to all those in need at any time of the year, and at particularly vulnerable stages of life; (recognizing) that chronically vulnerable individuals, unable to participate in the workforce, might need permanent assistance, recognizing that not everyone can graduate out of poverty and food insecurity

priority should be given to social protection that addresses the critical 'first 1,000 days' from pregnancy to 2 years old, including policies that promote and support breastfeeding, ensuring access to social services particularly health care, ensuring adequate knowledge of all relevant aspects of child care, and access to affordable and acceptable nutritious food products through the marketplace where possible, appropriate and sustainable;

consider flexible mechanisms to monitor and adjust design features and modalities as appropriate;

social protection systems should be designed in such a way that they can respond quickly to shocks such as droughts, floods and food price spikes.

social protection programmes for food security and nutrition should be guided by human rights norms and standards and should be complemented as appropriate by policies, guidelines, including legislation as appropriate, to support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security, and social security, as well as gender equality and empowerment

consider provisions recommended by the International Labour Conference on the Social Protection Floors

ground social protection in national institutional frameworks and legislation, where appropriate, establishing targets, benchmarks, indicators and institutional responsibilities

consider the adoption of integrated and mutually-supportive social protection and food security and nutrition strategies and policies, based on human rights standards and principles, including non-discrimination and equality (including gender), meaningful participation, transparency and accountability

Ensure that public investment, services, and policies for agriculture give due priority to enabling, supporting and complementing smallholders' own investment with particular attention to women food producers who face specific difficulties and need specific policies and support;

Ensure that agricultural policies and public investment give priority to food production and nutrition and increase the resilience of local and traditional food systems and biodiversity, with a focus on strengthening sustainable smallholder food production, reducing post harvest losses, increasing post harvest value addition, and on fostering smallholder-inclusive local, national and regional food markets including transportation, storage and processing;

Ensure that public policies and investment play a catalytic role in the formation of partnerships among agricultural investors, including private public, farmer co-operative private and private-private partnerships, to ensure that the interests of smallholders are being served and preserved by those partnerships, and recognize that, in many cases, the State has a crucial role to play in facilitating access of smallholders to credit, technical and extension services, insurance, and markets;

Give due attention to new market and environmental risks facing smallholder agriculture, and design investment, services and policies so as to mitigate these risks and strengthen the ability of both women and men smallholders to manage them. Align investment in agriculture with environmental sustainability considerations;

Actively involve organizations representing smallholders and agricultural workers in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of policies for investment in agriculture, and in the design of investment programmes in agriculture and food value chains;

governments and other stakeholders to report to the Committee as determined in the framework of 'Mapping food security actions at country level', on actions being taken to align international and domestic private and public investment in agriculture with food security concerns, including progress made in the implementation of the recommendations above, and to share lessons learned from national experiences. This reporting should be prepared in the context of a multi-actor forum that replicates at country level the inclusive vision of the new CFS;

HLPE to include in its plans for future work, taking into account available resources, a comparative study of constraints to smallholder investment in agriculture in different contexts with policy options for addressing these constraints, taking into consideration the work done on this topic by IFAD, and by FAO in the context of COAG, and the work of other key partners. This should include a comparative assessment of strategies for linking smallholders to food value chains in national and regional markets and what can be learned from different experiences, as well as an assessment of the impacts on smallholders of public-private as well as farmer cooperative private and private-private partnerships;

Increase stable and sustainable public and private investment to strengthen smallholder production systems, boost agricultural productivity, foster rural development and increase resilience with particular attention to smallholder agriculture;

Promote a significant expansion of agricultural research and development, and its funding, including by strengthening the work of the reformed CGIAR, supporting national research systems, public universities and research institutions, and promoting technology transfer, sharing of knowledge and practices, including for family farming, and capacity building through North-South and South-South cooperation;

Support the development, or review, by Member Countries, of comprehensive national food security strategies which are country-owned and led, evidence-based and inclusive of all key partners at national level, in particular civil society, women's and farmers' organizations, and which establish policy coherence in respective sectors, including national economic policies, to address food price volatility;