Publications
Launched in conjunction with the Global Symposium on Soil Erosion (15−17 May 2019), this paper argues that there are three main levers available to increase adoption of soil control measures: enhanced extension leading to voluntary adoption; regulation coupled with effective enforcement, and economic incentives.
If no action is taken, drug-resistant diseases could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050 and damage to the economy as catastrophic as the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, warns the UN Ad hoc Interagency Coordinating Group on Antimicrobial Resistance who released the report. By 2030, antimicrobial resistance could force up to 24 million people into extreme poverty.
This year’s Global Report on Food Crises highlights the plight of millions of people who must fight every day against acute hunger and malnutrition. More than 113 million people across 53 countries experienced acute hunger requiring urgent food, nutrition and livelihoods assistance (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) in 2018. The worst food crises in 2018, in order of severity, were: Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Sudan, South Sudan and northern Nigeria. These eight countries accounted for two thirds of the total number of people facing acute food insecurity – amounting to nearly 72 million people.
At least 55 percent of the world’s population already lives in urban areas – a proportion expected to increase to at least 65 percent by 2050 - and with nearly 80 percent of all food produced globally now consumed in urban areas. Urbanization is creating unprecedented challenges to ensuring that everyone has accessible, affordable food, while keeping a healthy diet, and preserving natural resources and biodiversity. Aimed at supporting decision makers at different levels, the Framework presents ideas on how cities around the world can implement actions to generate employment, strengthen local food value chains; and reduce and manage the worrisome levels of food waste found in many cities. Read the publication here.
To encourage young people to manage the planet wisely, we have to give them the means to become agents of change. FAO’s Discovering forests teaching and learning guides are part of an FAO initiative to inspire and engage young people, in this case 10-13 year-olds, and tie in with the theme of this year’s International Day of Forests, namely forests and education.