At the High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges, participants say those who are forcibly displaced are eager and qualified to help rebuild communities devastated by COVID-19. | Español | Français | عربي
Mario Lubetkin is Assistant Director General at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Women farmers irrigate crops of onions and other vegetables. They participate in a special programme to improve Senegal’s food security. Credit: FAO
ROME, Oct 21 2020 (IPS)* – The month of October 2020 will be recalled as one of the most important moments in raising awareness about world food security, whether in the global debate or in the search for possible concrete solutions. | En español
(UN News)* — An estimated one in six children – or 356 million globally – were living in extreme poverty before the COVID-19 pandemic began, and this is set to worsen significantly, according to a new World Bank Group and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) analysis released on Tuesday [20 October 2020].
(UN Environment)* — “The world today finds itself in the worst financial and economic crisis in generations. The crisis has triggered an unprecedented policy response: interest rates have been dramatically reduced, in some cases down to almost zero, and hundreds of billions of dollars in liquidity support and fresh capital have been provided to banking systems around the world.”
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16 2020 (IPS)* – As the United Nations plans to commemorate its annual UN Day, come October 24, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is presiding over a world body which has remained locked down since last March because of the spreading coronavirus pandemic.
UN75: The Future We Want, The UN We Need. Credit: United Nations
“In a world turned upside down, this General Assembly Hall is among the strangest sights of all,” said Guterres last month, describing the venue of the UN’s highest policy-making body.
I would like to announce the publication of a new book, which discusses the question of how oligarchs maintain their grasp on an excessive share of wealth and power when, as Shelley pointed out, the have-nots are many, while the power-holders are few.
Rise, like lions after slumber In unvanquishable number! Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you: Ye are many, they are few!
(UN News)* — Unless access is urgently granted to humanitarian organizations, thousands in the Central Sahel will be “pushed into further destitution”, the UN emergency food relief agency warned on Monday [19 October 2020].
UNOCHA/Giles Clarke | In Burkina Faso, the number of people facing a critical lack of food has increased.
Ahead of Tuesday’s High-Level Ministerial Conference on the Central Sahel in the Danish capital Copenhagen, the World Food Programme (WFP) sounded the alarm that catastrophic levels of hunger could hit parts of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
At what is arguably the most important time in human history, with Homo Sapiens confronted by an enormous range of violent challenges that threaten our very survival, the only question of any genuine importance is this:
Can we craft and implement a strategy to end the violence, particularly in each and all of its extinction-threatening dimensions, to ensure that humanity has a chance to thrive on planet Earth indefinitely into the future? But few are asking that question.
(UN News)* — Hunger is rising, due to factors including conflict, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, which is putting a strain on food systems that are already failing in many countries. In 16 October 2020‘s LIVE blog, marking World Food Day, we will look at some of the many issues and possible solutions.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic and a projected rise in extreme poverty, a team of scientists says the world can no longer afford to overlook the role of forests and trees in poverty eradication.
NEW YORK, United States, Oct 15 2020 (IPS)* – With extreme poverty (living on $1.90 a day) projected to rise for the first time in over 20 years, a new study has concluded that global poverty eradication efforts could be futile in the absence of forests and trees.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 