Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture

Photo credit: USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program.

The Ascendency and Mainstay of Participatory Development

Viewpoint by Dr Yossef Ben-Meir

The writer is President of the High Atlas Foundation, which is an implementer of the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program in Morocco.

MARRAKECH (IDN) — Participatory community movements found a contemporary impetus in post-World War II reconstruction of Europe and decolonization, primarily in Africa. The approach of locally managed change, however, was highly distrusted during these initial years, during which the dominant view was that central-level policymakers are in a better position than the people to make highly productive decisions regarding development projects.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 February 2021

Photo: A community kitchen at one of the protest sites. Credit: WNV/Manu Moudgil.

Farm Crisis Fuelling India’s Farmers’ Protests

By Manu Moudgil*

NEW DELHI (IDN) – On February 6, protesters blocked roads at an estimated 10,000 spots across India as part of the ongoing movement against the new farm laws enacted by the national government last year. For over two months, the most populous democracy in the world has witnessed what is being called one of the biggest protests in human history.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; South Asia; 19 February 2021

Photo: Global food supply chains are complex and include these kale farmers in Uganda. Credit: FAO.

Global Food Systems Can Only Be Truly Transformed with a People’s Summit

Viewpoint by Agnes Kalibata*

NEW YORK (IDN) – Long before the emergence of COVID-19, it was well-accepted that the world was off-course to achieve most of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, including ending hunger. But recovering from the pandemic to deliver any of the 17 SDGs relies now more than ever on first feeding the world.

Yet as COVID-19 spread, the reported number of hungry people rocketed upward after three decades of progress, with worse still likely to come in some regions as farmers contend with an unprecedented number of extreme weather events as well as the impact of the pandemic.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 18 February 2021

Photo: Employees prepare bananas to be distributed in Mogadishu. Credit: Allan Atulinda/UN.

Rural Voices to Be Heard at Food Systems Summit

By Kwame Buist

ROME (IDN) – The United Nations is to involve millions of rural people in the 2021 Food Systems Summit as part of an ambitious public engagement process, in which indigenous communities, family farmers, rural women and youth are among those invited to take a seat at the table during Independent Dialogues to help transform global food systems.

This unprecedented commitment to ensure that the voices and opinions of millions of the world’s most remote rural people are at the heart of the Food Systems Summit was announced February 18 by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy, Agnes Kalibata, and the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Gilbert F. Houngbo.

: Phil Harris; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 18 February 2021

Photo: A seven-month-old baby displaced with his mother due to conflict in Tigray eats a high energy biscuit to boost his nutrition levels. Credit: UNICEF/Esiey Leul Kinfu

Children Experiencing Severe Harm in Ethiopia's Tigray Region

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS | NEW YORK (IDN) — A United Nations agency had drawn attention to the dire situation of children in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where fighting continues between Government troops and regional forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

As more supplies and emergency personnel reach the area, “an incomplete but troubling picture” is emerging which reveals children are experiencing severe and ongoing harm, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on February 12.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 14 February 2021

Photo: Employees prepare bananas to be distributed in Mogadishu. Allan Atulinda/UN

Youth Movement Leads for Food Systems Transformation

By Ronald Joshua

ROME (IDN) – A wave of self-organised youth-led groups across the world has joined the growing momentum behind the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, which will peak in September.

The UN Food Systems Summit was announced by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, on World Food Day last October as a part of the Decade of Action for delivery on the SDGs by 2030. The aim of the Summit is to deliver progress on all 17 of the SDGs through a food systems approach, leveraging the interconnectedness of food systems to global challenges such as hunger, climate change, poverty and inequality.

: Ronald Joshua; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 12 February 2021

Photo: Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust, Rio de Janeiro credit: UN Academic Impact

Taking Action to Repair Our World

By Ramu Damodaran

The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd first appeared in the #WhyWeCare, @ImpactUN on February 5.

NEW YORK (IDN | UNAI) – “Nostalgia for the present“ is a phrase I once heard (or think I have), and it came to mind when reading a response received to last week’s (January 29) column and its looking back on CTAUN’s quarter-century of affirmation and affection. The question asked was straightforward; had CTAUN (Committee on Teaching) been able to “convene” over the past year? The answer, which I missed noting in my nostalgia for the past, is yes…three times actually.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 07 February 2021

Photo: Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, protesting against what they view as a dangerous repatriation to Myanmar. Credit: Jafor Islam-VOA. Created: 23 February 2018.

Rohingya Continue to Suffer Even After Escaping to Supposed Safe Land

By Bahauddin Foizee*

DHAKA (IDN) – The horrible scenes of hungry, tired and almost lifeless Rohingya refugees entering Bangladesh shocked the world in 2017. Even today, many Rohingyas are attempting to make the journey from Myanmar to Bangladesh, believing that a foreign land (Bangladesh) would be safer than their homes (Myanmar). Although they aren’t migrating in large numbers now unlike what they did in 2017, their journey today is as unsafe, horrifying and terrible as it was three years earlier.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 07 February 2021

Photo: FAO DG Qu Dongyu. Credit: WTO, CC BY-SA 2.0

Transformation of Agri-Food Systems Crucial for FAO in 2021

By Ronald Joshua

ROME (IDN) – Director-General QU Dongyu of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has declared 2021 a key year to move forward the transformation of agri-food systems, marked by big events, particularly the UN Food Systems Summit in New York, the Pre-Summit in Rome, and FAO’s Youth World Food Forum.

: Ronald Joshua; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 19 January 2021

Photo: International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Flickr Photos, CC by 2.0

Intra-African Commerce Remains Abstract Hope

Viewpoint by Kudzai Chimhangwa*

HARARE (IDN) – Edwin Moyo takes a stroll through his maize field, smiling as the lush green leaves of his crop brush against each other in response to the breeze. Busy amid the serenity of his two-hectare farm in the west of Zimbabwe, his patient tending looks likely to pay off, as the rainy season did not disappoint. The thick maize cobs spread out across the field are now the envy of his neighbours.