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Belgium and WFP invite technology and innovation champions to join the humanitarian hackathon

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.
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Germany supports WFP’s humanitarian assistance for refugees in Tanzania

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.
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FAO and WFO to help farmers drive global agricultural agenda

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.
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FAO urges to scale up response to climate change in agricultural sectors

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.
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NASA and FAO launch next-generation geospatial tool

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.
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Unabated climate change will cause more conflict and hunger

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.
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Progress on food security and nutrition stagnates in Europe and Central Asia

More than 14 million adults, and some 4.7 million children in Europe and Central Asia suffer from severe food insecurity – as defined by the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) - the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said in a report released today.
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New report raises hopes for Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries

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.
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When the City Does the Feeding: The Role of Local Governance in Urban Food Security

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

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A healthy diet sustainably produced – WHO Information sheet

A safe and healthy diet contributes to an optimal state of health and protects against all forms of malnutrition. It also reduces the risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and promotes a strong immune system that protects against infection. Every human being has a fundamental human right to adequate food and nutrition. However, unhealthy diet is one of the top risk factors for the global burden of disease and, together with maternal and child malnutrition, accounts for about one quarter of global deaths.

Meanwhile, today’s food systems struggle to provide everyone with the safe and sustainably produced food needed to ensure healthy diets. Ensuring a healthy diet now and into the future, therefore, demands that we focus on the most vulnerable populations, on promoting a healthy and diverse diet and on changing to sustainable food production systems.

This information sheet shows that a healthy diet which is sustainably produced and consumed is a “win-win” for people’s health and planetary health. In addition, the information sheet is developed using an equity/gender lens.

Key facts and recommendations for healthy eating are summarized and a useful list of concrete actions are proposed for governments to promote healthy and sustainable diets. Links to WHO fact sheets on related topics are provided.

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International Symposium on Understanding the Double Burden of Malnutrition for Effective Interventions

10–13 December 2018, IAEA Headquarters, Vienna (Austria)

The double burden of malnutrition (DBM) is characterized by the coexistence of undernutrition (stunting, wasting, vitamin and mineral deficiency) along with overweight, obesity or diet-related NCDs, within individuals, households and populations, and across the life-course. The developmental and economic impacts of this double burden are serious and lasting, with low and middle income countries bearing the greatest burden. The DBM is united by shared drivers and solutions and therefore calls for integrated nutrition action. 

The purpose of the symposium is to strengthen the understanding of how to address the DBM by sharing recent research findings and country experience with implementing relevant policies and programme interventions.

Objectives

The objective is to provide a forum for estimating and further exploring the magnitude of the DBM, sharing evidence on biological pathways through which early nutrition influences overweight, obesity and NCDs, identifying knowledge gaps and research needs, reviewing efforts that have been undertaken so far to create nutrition enabling environments and discussing considerations for the design and contextualisation of relevant double-duty actions and policies. Finally, the symposium will identify considerations for policies and action plans to support Member States in achieving their defined nutrition commitments within the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition and SDG2.

Topics

The symposium will cover five thematic areas:

  • Epidemiology - Prevalence, causes and consequences of the DBM.
  • Biology - Biological mechanisms contributing to the DBM.
  • Assessment - How to assess the DBM in individuals and populations.
  • Interventions - From biology to interventions targeting the DBM.
  • Policy implications - From biology to policies addressing the DBM.

Key Deadlines

  • 27 May 2018: Online submission of abstracts (INDICO).
    Submission of participation and abstract forms and grant applications (forms A, B, C).
  • 30 June 2018: Notification of acceptance of abstracts.

Abstracts must be submitted in electronic format through the online submission system INDICO available at the symposium web page.

More information on the symposium website
Detailed information on administrative procedures including participation and registration, abstract submission is provided on the symposium web site: 
https://www.iaea.org/events/understanding-the-double-burden-of-malnutrition-symposium-2018

There is no registration fee to attend this symposium.

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The Double Burden of Malnutrition: Crisis and Opportunity

Sight and Life Magazine on the Double Burden of Malnutrition now available

Currently, 38 million children are obese worldwide, compared with 151 million children stunted, and childhood obesity is increasing in every region of the world. Increasingly these conditions occur at the same time in the same country, household, and even in the same individual. The latest edition of the Sight and Life magazine focuses on Double Burden of Malnutrition and the challenges and opportunities the global community now faces in addressing all forms of malnutrition. Each article in this issue is inspiring and thought-provoking and we very much hope that it will stimulate new ways of thinking that pave the way for meaningful and lasting change.

To download and share the full report visit the Sight and Life website. 

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