Climate finance can be channeled to sustainable agriculture at large through small-scale investments. Finance can help
profitable businesses that promote biodiversity and conservation, improve productivity, nutrition, and resilience, while also benefiting farmers and their communities. Credit: Priscilla Negreiros/CPI – Climate Policy Initiative

SAN FRANCISCO, California, Sep 22 2021 (IPS) – September 23, 2021 is the first-ever UN Food Systems Summit, convened to mobilize the highest-priority transformations needed to end hunger through the sustainable production and distribution of food. Transforming food systems to ensure food security for all has never been …

Gödöllő, Hungary, Nov 4 2021 (IPS) – UNSG Antonio Guterres convened the first-ever UN Food Systems Summit which took place on 23-24 September. The Summit preparation had a well-designed structure with remarkable and appreciated leadership of Amina Mohammed, UN DSG. Due to the hard work of the UN Special Envoy, Agnes Kalibata, and her whole Team, the organisation and logistics of the Summit was excellent.

The Summit’s main outcome is the , “calling on the world to keep its promises for a better future through food systems that work for people, planet and prosperity”. This Statement was not negotiated in an inter-governmental process and it is not legally binding. Still…

NEW YORK, Dec 20 2021 (IPS) – The UN’s 76th anniversary in 2021 arrived at a time of great upheaval and change. If the world is to transition from COVID-19 and we are to deliver on our promises to future generations to secure a world where everyone can thrive in peace, dignity, and equality on a healthy planet – then 2022 must be the year we change both gear and discourse.

We need a multilateral system that is inclusive, networked but accessible, and effective. Member States have identified many areas of action that can only be addressed through reinvigorated multilateralism. However, such multilateralism must be backed by inclusive regional and cross-regional good pract…

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 2022 (IPS) – COVID-19 has exposed major long-term economic vulnerabilities. This malaise – including declining productivity growth – can be traced to the greater influence of finance in the real economy.

The deep-seated causes of the current resurgence of inflation, inequalities and contractionary tendencies have not been addressed. Meanwhile, reform proposals after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis (GFC) have been largely forgotten.

Anis Chowdhury

Declining productivity
Productivity growth in major economies since the early 1970s. As the World Bank , well “before the … pandemic, the global economy featured a…

Credit: UNHCR

TEANECK, New Jersey, Apr 26 2022 (IPS) – It was a long, harrowing road for Freshta and Shabaneh, two mothers (their names are pseudonyms) who fled Kabul, Afghanistan, late last summer before eventually settling in the southern New Jersey township of Hamilton.

Shabaneh, 30, the mother of three boys who was then between four and five months pregnant, recalls her flight out of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on a U.S. army plane under less-than-optimal conditions.

Whatever seats had been in place had been removed from the plane to accommodate all the passengers, and she had no choice but to sit with her kids on plastic bags on the f…

Hunger and food insecurity impact more than 38 million Americans. Black and Hispanic families and other minority groups including LGBTQ folks, consistently and disproportionally experience food insecurity.

URBANA, Illinois, USA, Jun 15 2022 (IPS) – This September, . Leading up to the conference, the White House is organizing across America to hear firsthand from people impacted by food insecurity and to collect ideas about how to end hunger and hunger-related diseases and disparities.

Hunger and food insecurity impact more than 38 million Americans. Black and Hispanic families and other minority groups including LGBTQ folks, consistently and disproportionally exper…

NEW YORK, Sep 9 2022 (IPS) – This week––nearly ten months after the emergence of the Omicron variant––the United States is rolling out Covid-19 booster vaccines that specifically target newer, now-dominant strains of the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has that 209 million Americans over the age of 12, or 74 percent of that population, will be eligible for the shots.

Unfortunately, the last year and a half are a stark reminder that it takes much more than even the miracle of “lightning speed” science to ensure widespread vaccination in this country.

In late July, the Kaiser Family Foundation that the share of p…

Africa needs to urgently invest in health programmes to reduce maternal deaths, which is more than five times above the 2030 SDG target of fewer than 70 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births. Measures include ensuring women access to skilled birth attendants. Credit: Ernest Ankomah/IPS

ACCRA, Jan 3 2023 (IPS) – As the effects of COVID-19 on Africa’s health sector become clearer, it looks th…

Patients outside the Mycetoma Research Center in Sudan. Credit: DNDi

NAIROBI, Apr 7 2023 (IPS) – The disease burden and distribution of mycetoma—a neglected tropical disease—are not very well understood. However, it is known to affect people in Sudan, Senegal, Mauritania, Kenya, and Niger, as well as people in Nigeria, Ethiopia, India, and Cameroon. Cases have also been reported in Djibouti, Somalia, and Yemen.

“It is currently unknown what the incidence, prevalence and the number of reported cases per year per country is,” observes …

The authors are Co-Chairs of the IPBES Assessment of the Sustainable Use of Wild Species

Salmon fishing. Credit: iStock

BONN, Germany, Jun 22 2022 (IPS) – You probably use wild species far more often than you realise. For many people, especially in more developed economies, the use of wild species sounds like something quite removed from their everyday lives – something perhaps more relevant to other people, in other countries.

It is a fact, however, that the use of wild species is a vital part of almost every human community. If you eat fish, they are most likely wild species. When you take cough medication, it’s likely to be derived, in part…