FAO urges at G20 meeting protection of food supply chains amid COVID-19 threat

“Preserving access to safe food and nutrition is an essential part of the health response,” FAO's DG said, speaking on behalf of the RBAs to the Extraordinary Virtual G20 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting on Food Security and Nutrition held today by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
/by

FAO chief briefs the United Nations Security Council on measures to break the vicious cycle between conflict and hunger

With conflicts, extreme weather, desert locusts, economic shocks and now COVID-19, likely to push more people into acute food insecurity, coherent actions are needed among humanitarian, development and peace actors, to address the root causes that perpetuate existing food crises, said FAO-Director-General QU Dongyu today.
/by

Joint Statement on COVID-19 Impacts on Food Security and Nutrition

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to dramatic loss of human life across the world and presents an unprecedented challenge with deep social and economic consequences, including compromising food security and nutrition. Responses need to be well coordinated across the world, including by the G20 and beyond, to limit impacts, end the pandemic, and prevent its recurrence.
/by

Global Report on Food Crises reveals scope of food crises as COVID-19 poses new risks to vulnerable countries

Today an international alliance of UN, governmental, and nongovernmental agencies working to address the root causes of extreme hunger have released a new edition of their annual Global Report on Food Crises.
/by

Global Report on Food Crises 2020

The Global Report on Food Crises is the result of a joint, consensus-based assessment of acute food insecurity situations around the world by 16 partner organizations.
It is facilitated by the Food Security Information Network, which provides the core coordination and technical support to pillar 1 of the Global Network Against Food Crises’s.

The report tracks the numbers and locations of acutely food-insecure people most in need of emergency food, nutrition and livelihood assistance during the peak or worst point in 2019.

Download the full report

More information available here

 

/by

AREA CoP Webinar: Technological innovations for anaemia prevention programmes

21 April 2020 15:00 – 16:00 CET

Halving anaemia prevalence by 2030 requires both efforts to scale-up proven nutrition interventions and the development of innovative solutions to address emerging bottlenecks.

Essential nutrition actions such as supplementation and food fortification with iron, face some technological challenges that are limiting their use at large scale. These barriers range from low acceptability and adherence to supplements to losses of available iron in a food matrix.

Universities and research institutions are working to create promising (and exciting!) options that can be implemented in the near term.

Please join this webinar where we will discuss novel iron compounds for food fortification and supplementation, lentil fortification and parenteral iron supplementation as a public health intervention. 

More information about the webinar available here

 

/by

FAO welcomes $10 million donation from Mastercard Foundation to fight Desert Locusts in East Africa

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu has welcomed a $10 million donation from Mastercard Foundation to step up the fight against the Desert Locust outbreak in East Africa amid concern about an imminent upsurge in numbers.
/by

COVID-19: FAO and African Union commit to safeguarding food security amid crisis

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the African Union (AU) and international partners today described the food and agriculture system as “an essential service that must continue to operate during periods of lockdown, emergency, curfew and other containment measures”.
/by

UNSCN Formal Report to ECOSOC – 2020

In April 2017, UNSCN's annual reporting lines to ECOSOC were re-established as per ECOSOC decision 2018/207. 
In 2020, UNSCN submitted a report for 2019 to ECOSOC that will be presented at the ECOSOC 2020 Management Segment.

The report is available in all UN languages.

Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Russian

/by

UNSCN COVID-19 Questionnaire

The UNSCN Secretariat has prepared a short questionnaire to understand the changes people are making in their everyday life due to the impact of COVID-19. The results will inform UNSCN publications which examine the consequences of COVID-19 on people’s food environments and look to help people adapt as well as possible.

You can take the questionnaire in English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish; Arabic, Chinese and Russian will become available by the end of this week. It will only take 5 minutes of your time!

Results from this survey will be made available in compiled form at UNSCN.org.

The survey is open until Monday 24th of April 2020.

/by

COVID-19: should we worry about animals?

In this interview, Berhe Tekola, FAO’s Director for Animal Health and Production, sets the record straight about COVID-19 when it comes to animals – be that pets or livestock, and eating foods of animal origin. He also explains what the Organization has been doing to create better understanding and awareness, mitigating COVID-19’s impacts on people, animals and the environment.
/by

FAO continues to fight Desert Locust upsurge in East Africa and Yemen despite COVID-19 constraints

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization is continuing efforts to contain the Desert Locust upsurge in East Africa despite the challenges and constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
/by