NEWSLETTER No. 10
3 November 2009

In this newsletter you will find the latest discussion documents, resources, news and events from the Forum since August 2009.

As of today, the FSN Forum has over 1470 members, held 48 e-discussions and shared 755 resource papers, over 50 useful web-links and 324 news/events.

We would like to highlight two on-going discussions:

- Food Security and Agriculture Governance Systems, raised by members of the Civil Society Forum's (CSF)  steering committee  - Chris Leather (Oxfam), Antonio Onorati (IPC) and Francisco Sarmento (ActionAid). The CSF is taking place on occasion of the World Summit on Food Security (WSFS)

- Food, Agriculture and Cities, raised by the facilitator of FAO's Food for the Cities multidisciplinary initiative, Julien Custot

Both these discussions will feed into the preparation of two important events, namely the Civil Society Forum (CSF), which will take place on 14-16 November 2009 on occasion of the World Summit on Food Security of Rome and the 5th Session of the World Urban Forum taking place next March. We invite members to take advantage of these opportunities.

Further we would like to thank all of you for your outstanding participation in the discussion How to Feed the World in 2050?. This discussion has yielded some very important results and also contributed to the Background paper for the World Summit on Food Security. You can find the summary on the FSN Forum homepage.

On a more personal note, we would like to say good-bye to our Moderator and Focal Point Ms Huyen Tran who is leaving the FSN Forum to take up another activity. Our many thanks go to her for successfully building up and moderating the Forum over the last three years. Please also join us in welcoming Ms Renata Mirulla who will replace Huyen in this most rewarding work. Renata is an Italian national and has a degree in Political Sciences. Before joining the Forum in late August, she worked in the Sustainable Development field at Italy's Ministry of the Environment and for "Ambiente Italia" - an environmental policy and analysis institute.

We look forward to your proposals for new discussion topics and thank you for your active support and participation.

Warmest regards,

The FSN Forum Team

Mark Smulders, coordinator
Huyen Tran, moderator and focal point
Renata Mirulla, moderator
Max Blanck, research associate


In this issue:

Forum activities | Featured news and events | New Resources Contributed

Forum Activities

Since August 2009, the FSN Forum has hosted the following discussions:

On-going Discussions

Food, Agriculture and Cities
Discussion raised by Julien Custot from FAO, Italy
Please click below to access the discussion documents:

Topic introduction

Public Procurement of Agricultural Goods
Discussion raised by Darana Souza from UNDP, Brazil
Please click below to access the discussion documents:

Read the introductory message
Read the introductory message in Spanish
Read the introductory message in French
Discussion proceedings

Revising the Food Chapter of the Sphere Handbook
Discussion raised by Susan Thurstans (Save the Children UK), Paul Turnbull (WFP), Walter Middleton (World Vision), Devrig Velly (ACF)
Please click below to access the discussion documents:

Read the introductory message
Discussion proceedings

Food Security and Agriculture Governance Systems
Discussion raised by Chris Leather (Oxfam), Antonio Onorati (IPC), Francisco Sarmento (ActionAid)
Please click below to access the discussion documents:

Read the introductory message
Read the introductory message in Spanish
Read the introductory message in French
Discussion proceedings

Closed Discussions

Land Grab or Development Opportunity?
Discussion raised by Denis Drechsler from FAO, Italy
Please click below to access the discussion documents:

Topic introduction
Read the introductory message in Spanish
Read the introductory message in French
Discussion proceedings
Discussion summary

How to Feed the World in 2050?
Discussion raised by Hartwig de Haen former FAO ADG, Germany
Please click below to access the discussion documents:

Topic introduction
Read the introductory message in Spanish
Read the introductory message in French
Discussion proceedings
Discussion summary
Concluding notes

Recent Thinking on Rural Development
Discussion raised by Jan Michaels from FAO, Italy
Please click below to access the discussion documents:

Topic introduction
Discussion proceedings
Discussion summary

Looking back to effective rural practices ... Did we miss something?
Discussion raised by Walter Mwasaa from CARE International, Sierra Leone
Please click below to access the discussion documents:

Topic introduction
Discussion proceedings
Discussion summary

Revising the Food Security Component of the Sphere Handbook
Discussion raised by Devrig Velly from Action Against Hunger, USA
Please click below to access the discussion documents:

Topic introduction
Discussion proceedings
Discussion summary

Developing and Implementing Food Safety Mechanisms
Discussion raised by Harun K.M. Yusuf and Lalita Bhattacharjee from FAO, Bangladesh
Please click below to access the discussion documents:

Topic introduction
Discussion proceedings
Discussion summary

Food Security and Capabilities Approach: from theory to practice
Discussion raised by Thais Bassinello from Brazil
Please click below to access the discussion documents:

Topic introduction
Discussion proceedings
Discussion summary

Food Security in arid and semi-arid lands: the challenges of sustainable use of scarce resources
Discussion raised by Hezekiah G. Muriuki from Kenya
Please click below to access the discussion documents:

Topic introduction
Discussion proceedings
Discussion summary

Note: All the summaries can be found on the FSN Forum page:
http://km.fao.org/fsn/resources/discussion-proceedingssummaries/en/

Featured news and events

New Resources Contributed by Topic

21 Resources have been shared in the FSN Forum since the 24th August 2009 and are available at: http://km.fao.org/fsn/resources/contribute-resources/en/

Foreign Direct Investment in Agriculture

Land grab or development opportunity? Agricultural investment and international land deals in Africa

International Investments in Agricultural Production

Food Security - Policies and Strategies

How to Feed the World in 2050 Background Synthesis Paper

International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD)

The Future Control of Food

FAO Policy Brief "Hunger in the Face of Crisis"

Symposium on Nutrition Security for India Issues and Way Forward

Food requirements and population growth

The Feeding of the Nine Billion: Global Food Security for the 21st Century

MDG Gap Task Force Report 2008

The Food and Farming Transition - Toward a Post Carbon Food System

Food Security and Agriculture

Food, Agriculture, and Cities: Where do we stand?

Food Security and Gender

Context of the Rural Women in Pakistan

Food Security in Emergencies

Protecting livelihoods and food security: animal welfare in disasters

If you have items to feature in this Newsletters, please send them to the FSN Forum team at fsn-moderator@fao.org

Disclaimer: In posting messages or incorporating this information, the FSN Forum accepts no responsibility for its veracity or authenticity. Members intending to use or transmit the information contained in these messages should be aware that they are relying on their own judgment.

Copyrighted under Creative Commons License "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0". Re-users of this material must cite as their source FSN Forum as well as the item's recommender, if relevant, and must share any derivative work with the FSN Forum community