A/HRC/43/44/Add.6 refugees, the population of the Sahel region and the Horn of Africa to feed children and prevent school dropout. As many countries are currently experiencing droughts or heavy floods, far more frequent than in the past and with significant loss of crops, the Italian Cooperation set as a priority the prevention of humanitarian crises through "early warning" and "early action" initiatives. These aim to reduce the risk from disasters and mitigate the consequences of these phenomena, allowing beneficiaries to adapt their agricultural techniques, diversify crops, and therefore improve food production. Furthermore, an increase in food security could help reduce distress-driven migration, in particular from Sub-Saharan Africa, and address the root causes of famine, support the resilience of local population and empower the most vulnerable people, starting from IDPs and refugees, people with disabilities, children and women. There is a long list of emergency and humanitarian assistance projects in bilateral and multilateral contexts of the two-year period 2018 and 2019 that best respond to the issues close to the right to food. Among them, 4. - € 22.8 million for projects targeting people disproportionately affected by the right to food violations, including women, children minorities, refugees and internal displaces persons; - € 10,5 million for initiatives aimed at protecting small-scale farmers, addressing poverty and supporting the development in rural communities; - € 8,5 million for projects that deal with the impact of environmental issues, ecosystem protection and climate change on right to food issues; - € 4 million for crosscutting projects targeting vulnerable populations. Addressing the agricultural sector and food systems in Africa As far as Africa is concerned, our traditional commitment remains focused on the fight against malnutrition and food waste, with a view to strengthen agro-food systems and value chains. In particular, we focus on the adoption of techniques and practices for farming, transformation and sustainable consumption, the qualitative and quantitative improvement of production, increasing the profit margins of small producers, while also encouraging responsible investment (with the involvement, whenever possible, of the private sector, whose role is increasingly critical in this context). In this sense, clear examples are: - the “Project for the improvement of agricultural production in central-eastern Mauritania (PAPACEM)”, aimed at financing micro-projects promoted by the organizations of producers – almost 30% of which are women – rehabilitating rural and hydrological infrastructures and raising awareness of rural communities on malnutrition; - the PAPSEN program in Senegal, through which we provided technical and organizational support for rice farmers, with a significant impact on women's economic empowerment and on household food security: in fact, through a mechanism of multiplication of productive techniques (for a leverage effect), 1,095 households were targeted and the approach was able to guarantee self-sufficiency in rice for 18,000 people; - the realization of four “Integrated Agro-Industrial Parks in Ethiopia, based on the grouping of independent enterprises in clusters to share infrastructures, and services and to contribute to scale-economies in order to transform and prepare agricultural products for export and national commerce. The Italian development cooperation promotes investments in agricultural innovation through several cooperation projects, among which the co-financing of 2.5 Million Euros to the World Bank project “Tubaniso Agribusiness and Innovation Center” (TAIC) in Mali, a regional incubator and acceleration center for small and medium enterprises in areas of high growth potential, such as rural development, energy and digitalization. 24

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