CAIRO – Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Egypt, the Egyptian Government and WFP yesterday signed an agreement to benefit neighbouring and African countries through the exchange of knowledge and expertise in support of the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular the goal of Zero Hunger.
BRUSSELS - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) together with the Belgian Ministry for Development Cooperation and Hack Belgium Labs are inviting technology and innovation champions to join the first ever Humanitarian Hackathon focused on food security. It will take place at Egmont Palace in Brussels on 15-16 January 2019, aiming to develop technology-driven solutions for some of today’s most pressing humanitarian challenges.
DAR ES SALAAM – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a €3.25 million contribution from the Federal Republic of Germany to support its work in favour of refugees and asylum seekers in Tanzania in 2018-19.
The World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today reaffirmed their commitment to help farmers become the drivers of the global agricultural agenda.
The world must scale up the response to climate change, particularly in agricultural sectors, FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo said at the UN Climate Conference today. It will require investing in multi-sectoral policy design, implementation design, people, data, innovations and leadership.
Seeing both forests and trees is about to get easier, thanks to a new open-access tool developed by NASA and FAO, with support from the Google Earth Engine Team and the US Government’s SilvaCarbon Program - allowing anyone to track land-use and landscape changes anywhere.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018, 3:30 - 5:00 pm EST hosted by the Center For Strategic & International Studies

 For 25 years, the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte has been an unsung hero in the fight against food insecurity. As Dr. M. Jahi Chappell put it, “The course to universal food security will never run smooth[ly], but steps forward have and can be made. Belo Horizonte has walked a bit farther down the path than most.” Annually, the municipal government’s Under-Secretariat of Food and Nutritional Security spends upwards of $27 million running affordable “Popular Restaurants” that serve 14,000 meals per day; supporting retail “Food at Low Cost” outlets that annually move 50 million kilograms of produce; and making lunch from scratch for 150,000 schoolchildren. In addition, the government procures nearly all the produce required for these programs from small- and medium- sized family farms in the peri-urban area.

Please join us for a keynote address from Belo Horizonte’s Food and Nutrition Secretary, Ms. Maíra Colares, as we examine the promise, challenges, and determinants of durable municipal governance in food security policy. The keynote will be preceded by a special video message from Olivier de Schutter, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, and followed by a panel discussion with Secretary Colares and Chris Shepherd-Pratt from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Drawing on the experiences of Belo Horizonte, the panel will explore a number of issues:

  • What special role can municipal governments play in food security, compared to regional, national, and international governments?
  • What enables government institutions to maintain their commitments to food security over the long-term?
  • How can U.S. development policymakers best support local governance?

To register for the event or to join the live-webcast, visit the webpage for the event. You can also participate in the conversation using #CSISLive and #FoodSecurity

Although the main commercial fish species in the Mediterranean and Black Sea are still over-fished, pressure has reduced over the past years, raising hopes – for the first time - for the recovery of fish stocks, according to new FAO-GFCM report launched today.
FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today warned of increased conflict and hunger if climate change is left unabated. He made the remarks at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum 2018 panel discussion on how to solve the climate crisis, with 2007 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former US Vice-President Al Gore.