Highlights
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Events
7/ 7
2025
8/7
2025
LAC–NENA Family Farming Interregional Dialogue
Cairo (Egypt), 07/07/2025 - 08/07/2025
Background
Family farming is the backbone of global food systems — producing most of the world’s food and supporting the livelihoods of over 2.5 billion people. In both the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and Near East and North Africa (NENA) regions, family farmers play a vital role in food security, rural development, and cultural heritage.
Yet they also ...
9/ 9
2025
10/9
2025
Hack4safeFood: Tackling food safety challenges
09/09/2025 - 10/09/2025
Led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Research Network and Food Safety Innovation Hub (RNFSI...
26/ 5
2025
11/8
2025
The Seventh World Food Safety Day - 2025
26/05/2025 - 11/08/2025
Series of Webinars: Date: 26 May – 11 August 2025 (Every Monday) 11.00 – 12.30 (Cairo Time)
Food safety is crucial for agrifood transformation in the Arab region, driven by rapid population growth and increased food demand. Consumers in this region face heightened exposure to contaminated food and foodborne diseases due to several factors such as dry climate, unsafe water supplie...
Regional Priorities
Action Areas
Red Palm Weevil Eradication Programme
The Red Palm Weevil (RPW) Eradication Programme facilitates the coordination of regional efforts to ensure an integrated and sustainable approach to controlling the RPW and reducing its devastating effects on date palm production, the food and income security of rural communities, and the ecology of affected areas.
Youth empowerment
Young men and women have a key role to play in fostering sustainability, equity and resilience of agrifood systems in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region. FAO works with youth across the region to improve their access to high quality education and training, decent employment, rural institutions and critical assets and services, in agrifood value chains.
Sustainable and Inclusive Agrifood Value Chains
Sustainable and inclusive agrifood value chains development is a market-oriented and systems-based approach for assessing, understanding and improving the performance of agrifood value chains, to ensure their economic, social, and environmental and climate sustainability.
The UN Decade of Family Farming
The UN Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028 (UNDFF) aims to shed new light on what it means to be a family farmer in a rapidly changing world and highlights more than ever before the important role family farmers play in eradicating hunger and shaping the future of our agri-food systems.
Addressing climate change in agrifood systems
FAO’s climate change activities aim to strengthen capacities of member countries to build resilient agrifood systems, and to plan, implement and report on climate change adaptation and mitigation actions in the agriculture sectors.
Rural advisory services for inclusive transformation in the Near East and North Africa
Rural advisory services (RAS) have a central role in equipping farmers with the knowledge and skills to cope with challenges and empower them to make informed decisions, link to markets and act collectively to improve their livelihoods and claim their agency in inclusive rural transformation.
The Regional Initiative on Water Scarcity for the Near East and North Africa
In order to help NENA countries address the food and water security challenges, the FAO’s Regional Office in the Near East and North Africa and its partners established the Water Scarcity Initiative.
Gender equality and women’s empowerment for inclusive food systems transformation
The Regional Office has a stand-alone programme of work on gender equality and women’s empowerment that addresses gender as a cross-cutting theme in all its regional priorities and initiatives.
One Country One Priority Product: Global Action on Green Development of Special Agricultural Products
The Global Action on Green Development of Special Agricultural Products (SAPs): One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) was launched by the FAO Director General in 2021. The initiative will aim to support countries in transforming their agrifood systems to be more sustainable, efficient, resilient and inclusive.
Social inclusion
In NENA countries, poverty is predominantly rural. With small scale producers – including fishers and pastoralists – and landless rural workers facing growing marginalization, rural communities are left increasingly vulnerable to economic, political and environmental shocks. This and the high prevalence of gender disparities, youth unemployment, child labour and other forms of exclusion constitute a significant barrier to more equitable agrifood systems in the region.
Stories
Blogs
Greening agriculture, water scarcity and climate action
Advancing the bioeconomy in the Near East and North Africa: A path to sustainability and innovation
25/06/2025
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FAO Assistant Director- General
Land restoration in focus: NENA's agenda for Desertification and Drought Day
17/06/2025
Desertification and Drought Day 2025 is a timely reminder of the urgent need to restore our land and rethink how we manage natural resources. With this year’s theme, “Restore the Land. Unlock the Opportunities,” countries around the world are highlighting the benefits of land restoration.
Opinions
FAO reaffirms commitment to land restoration on World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
17/06/2025
On this year’s World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reaffirms its unwavering commitment to Saudi Arabia’s transformative efforts to restore degraded land, combat sand encroachment, and strengthen climate resilience.
Publications
Situation analysis of farmer registries in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) Implications for rural social protection
2025
The document presents a review of farmer and fisher registries in the NENA region, examining the role these digital tools play in transforming agrifood systems. As the agriculture sector increasingly leverages digital technologies and data-driven business models, the adoption of farmer and fisher registries has become central to improving decision-making and policy formulation.
FAO alerts countries in the Near East and West Eurasia to enhance preparedness for foot-and-mouth disease
2025
FAO is recommending urgent biosecurity measures and enhanced surveillance following the recent detection of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) serotype SAT1 in the Near East.
Social innovation trends in the Near East and North Africa region: Examples and opportunities for action An assessment of their agribusiness capacities and institutional environment
2025
This report presents research on social innovation and relevant trends for small-scale farming in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region. Social innovation is an approach to community development that gained momentum in the second half of the 2010s as a response to the challenges imposed by the post- crisis economy and austerity policies.
.tmb-th600x400.png?Culture=en&sfvrsn=88e9f5ea_2 "Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East and North Africa (AARINENA)")
.tmb-th600x400.png?Culture=en&sfvrsn=a8ad9034_1 "The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)")
.tmb-th600x400.png?Culture=en&sfvrsn=dfbaa9f2_1 "Inter-Islamic Network on Water Resources Development and Management (INWRDAM)")
.tmb-th600x400.png?Culture=en&sfvrsn=4eb83e5b_1 "Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE)")
.tmb-th600x400.png?Culture=en&sfvrsn=b68ea809_2 "Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO)")
.tmb-th600x400.png?Culture=en&sfvrsn=26bd6c6b_1 "Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND)")
.tmb-th600x400.png?Culture=en&sfvrsn=2b881a9b_1 "The Arab Maghreb Union (AMU)")
.tmb-th600x400.png?Culture=en&sfvrsn=ae3a73a3_1 "Regional Centre on Agrarian Reform & Rural Development for the Near East(CARDNE)")
.tmb-th600x400.png?Culture=en&sfvrsn=5fad0e0e_1 "Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)")
.tmb-th600x400.png?Culture=en&sfvrsn=adacc503_1 "Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)")
.tmb-th600x400.png?Culture=en&sfvrsn=8bd62a66_1 "Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC)")