SAFA for Sustainability Assessment

The FAO Guidelines: Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems (SAFA), provide an international reference for sustainable management, monitoring and reporting in food and agriculture at all levels of the supply chain. SAFA is not a sustainability index, nor a sustainability standard, nor a labelling tool. SAFA: ££ defines what sustainable food and agriculture systems are, including environmental integrity, economic resilience, social well-being and good governance; ££ outlines a procedure for an integrated analysis of all dimensions of sustainability, including the selection of appropriate indicators and rating of sustainability performance (best, good, moderate, limited, unacceptable); and ££ describes sustainability themes, sub-themes, goals and indicators. A SAFA is an assessment of the sustainability performance of one or several entities forming part of a value chain rooted in agriculture, forestry, fisheries or aquaculture. It can address all entities from the site of primary production to that of final sales to the consumer. SAFA can take the form of a self-evaluation for the use by primary producers, food manufacturers and retailers in every part of the world.