An extraordinary gathering at the United Nations on September 21 may have permanently changed how the world deals with antibiotic resistance, which is believed to kill 700,000 people around the world each year. During the UN meeting, the entire assembly signed on to a political declaration that calls antibiotic resistance “the greatest and most urgent global risk.” Continue reading
The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a global initiative for the United Nations, is looking for feedback on their draft report ‘Solutions for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems’ from organizations, academics, researchers, civil society, the private sector, government officials and the general public. The SDSN’s Thematic Group on Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems released a … Continue reading
Updated information as of 29 July 2011 by the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on the drought in the Horn of Africa (illustration credit: FEWS NET and OCHA). Food insecurity remains at emergency levels across parts of the Horn of Africa, famine … Continue reading
Residents of Barack Obama’s families village of Kogelo, Kenya, celebrate his inauguration (photo by Zoriah on Flickr). The United Nations reports that the war against poverty is progressing well in some places. ‘Some of the world’s poorest countries have made impressive gains in the fight against poverty, but the least developed countries still lag in … Continue reading
Expectations were high when the United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 as “International Year of Forest,” having in mind the social, economic and cultural roles that the forests play in communities around the world in the context of global warming, climate change and agricultural development. As such, it was with strong determination that members of … Continue reading
For Sara Ruto, the desperate yearning for electricity began last year with the purchase of her first cellphone, a lifeline for receiving small money transfers, contacting relatives in the city or checking chicken prices at the nearest market. Charging the phone was no simple matter in this farming village far from Kenya’s electric grid. Every … Continue reading
The half-dozen strangers who descended on this remote West African village brought its hand-to-mouth farmers alarming news: their humble fields, tilled from one generation to the next, were now controlled by Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and the farmers would all have to leave. “They told us this would be the last rainy season for … Continue reading
Head north from nairobi toward Mount Kenya and almost invariably you’ll hit weather. Fog, rain, hail, even snow, all unusual for the equator but a blessing for Mount Kenya’s farmers, who export coffee, roses, green beans and peas to Europe. Once you pass the mountain and descend onto the dusty Samburu plain, however, the weather … Continue reading
The Lung Pu is an indigenous black pig of northern Viet Nam; this one is maintained on a biodiversity farm near the northern town of Meo Vac (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). From Agence France-Presse comes this cliffhanger of a news report today (20 October 2010), the final day of a 12-day United Nations summit on biodiversity. … Continue reading
Farmer Jocia De Sousa pounds maize for her daily meal in Muchamba Village, in Mozambique’s Tete Province (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). ‘Next stop for policymakers gathered in Rome for World Food Day should be Cancun, venue of the climate change summit,’ says Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, on the … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 