Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture

Photo: A resident of Stofland township returns home, South Africa, 2011. Credit: 2011 Marcus Bleasdale/VII for Human Rights Watch.

Southern African Governments Pressed for Land Reform

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The day of reckoning is arriving in Southern Africa for the hundreds of thousands of blacks whose lands were taken forcibly by white settlers – a crime that goes unpunished despite promises for land reform year after year.

Pressure is growing on governments to take action and return ancestral lands to their original owners. But government leaders have been cautiously backing away from some of their early militant calls for justice.

"It's true whites stole the land, but they also have Namibian blood," said Namibian President Hage Geingob. "Whites are also Namibian," he said diplomatically at a Heroes Day commemoration in northern Namibia on August 26.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 28 August 2018

Photo: Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: First Informal Interactive Hearing with Indigenous Peoples. 17 April 2018. United Nations, New York. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Indigenous Peoples in the Grip of 'Criminalization', Warns New UN Report

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – A new United Nations report warns that "in a wide variety of countries," both physical violence and legal prosecution are used against Indigenous Peoples defending their rights and lands. They are "criminalized".

The report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, to the UN Human Rights Council describes how private sector interests collude with governments in coveting the lands of Indigenous Peoples for economic development projects.

She was Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues from 2005 to 2010, and actively engaged in drafting and adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 28 August 2018

Photo: Space science and earth observation can help institutions in sub-Saharan Africa face many challenges in integrating climate information to inform policy making in the management of natural resources, and reducing disaster risks. Credit: RCMD

Space Science Vital to Achieving Global Development Goals

By Justus Wanzala

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – Space science and earth observation are some of the key pillars in the attainment of most of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to experts participating in an international conference, organized by the Regional Centre for Mapping Resources for Development (RCMRD) in Kenya's capital city.

The central theme of the RCMRD International Conference (RIC 2018) was 'Space Science for Sustainable Development' with particular focus on agriculture and food security, weather and climate, water and hydro-climatic disasters, land use land cover and ecosystems, land management and surveying, and cross cutting themes.

: Justus Wanzala; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 27 August 2018

Photo: Members of the Hadzabe community in Manyara region making bows for hunting. The group is among beneficiaries of the mapping project run by the Ujamaa Community Resources Team. Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

Tanzania's Indigenous Communities Racing to Secure Land Eyed by Investors

By Kizito Makoye

DAR ES SALAAM (IDN) – Helena Magafu smiled as she held a piece of paper that recognizes her as the sole owner of a disputed farmland in her village was handed over to her, thus resolving a raging dispute with her neighbours.

"I am very happy, I don’t think anyone with ever again claim this is their land," she said

For the past eight years the 53 year-old widow, who lives in Sanje village in the rural district of Kilombero – in Morogoro Region, south-western Tanzania – has been embroiled in a dispute with her neighbours who attempted to take 30 hectares of her family land when her husband died.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 05 August 2018

Photo: More than 35,000 rural households in Kenya will soon be eating better and earning more money thanks to a new financial agreement signed by the IFAD and Kenya in support of the country’s aquaculture sector. Credit: IFAD

Stories Behind IFAD's Focus on Africa

By Kwame Buist

ROME (IDN) – In its recently released Annual Report 2017, the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – a specialised agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries – promises to leverage core resources of 1.2 billion dollars to fund a programme of loans and grants totalling 3.5 billion dollars over the 2019-2021 period.

Ninety percent of these core resources will be allocated to low-income and lower-middle-income countries, with about 45 percent being channelled to sub-Saharan Africa, and 50 percent to Africa as a whole.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 July 2018

Photo: Abderrahim Ouarghidi (author) discussing with a farmer about varieties of local crop seeds and medicinal plants in the Ouirgane municipality, Marrakech region, Morocco.

Morocco Protects Traditional Crops and Wild Medicinal Plants

By Abderrahim Ouarghidi*

MARRAKECH (IDN) – The Moroccan proverb 'New things have a charm and old ones should be preserved' has wide applicability in current Moroccan agricultural practices and attitudes toward conventional and local crop varieties.

The revealing adage is part of the Moroccan identity and way of life. Moroccan people are committed to establishing a distinctive modernity based upon existing cultural traditions of which high value is placed.

For instance, there is great preference for local or "beldi" foods, such as "a’slhur" (pure unfiltered honey), "zit ud""(olive oil), and "shriha skouria" (a local fig variety) that have always been appreciated and valued delicacies. Nearly all Moroccan communities consider beldi food items to be healthy, tasty, and nutritious.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East; 20 May 2018

Agroecology Key Element to Zero Hunger and Food Security

By Jaya Ramachandran

ROME (IDN) – More than enough food is produced in the world to feed everyone, yet 815 million people go hungry, according to FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. How to ensure that a growing global population – projected to rise to around 10 billion by 2050 – will have enough food to meet their nutritional needs, is therefore one of the greatest challenges the world faces. Experts see in agroecology a solution.

Agroecology, they say, can help transition to sustainable food and agriculture systems that ensure food security and nutrition for all, provide social and economic equity and conserve biodiversity and the ecosystem services on which agriculture depends.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 06 April 2018

Photo: Members of the women's cooperative use climate-resilient organic compost and biopesticides in their farm. Credit: UN Women

Women Farmers in Africa Fight Impact of Climate Change

By Ronald Joshua

NEW YORK | BAMAKO (IDN) – Fatou Dembele is a farmer in landlocked Mali, where half of the population engaged in agriculture are women. Agriculture is a key sector to lift women out of poverty. But the increasing degradation of land and natural resources caused by climate change is making women more vulnerable.

Therefore when Dembele’s plants first started dying, she thought the plot of land was ruined, and her livelihood was at risk. “We thought the land was sick. We didn’t know that there were live parasites that attacked the roots of the plants and could kill them,” says Dembele.

: Ronald Joshua; THE WORLD; Africa; 27 March 2018

Photo: (L to R): Urs Wiesmann, Co-Chair of SDSN Switzerland; Katrin Muff, Conference Facilitator; Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse Foundation; Jacques Dubochet, University of Lausanne; Océane Dayer, Co-Chair of SDSN Switzerland; Michael Bergöö, Acting Managing Director of SDSN Switzerland. Credit: Peter Lüthi, Biovision.

Switzerland Joins Sustainable Development Solutions Network

By Jaya Ramachandran

BERN (IDN) – The global Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) has launched its 25th network, SDSN Switzerland, co-hosted by the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern and BIOVISION Foundation, foundation for ecological development, with a view to shaping multi-stakeholder dialogue, fostering sustainable development solutions, and advising decision-makers on the implementation of the Agenda 2030 and the Paris Climate Agreement.

SDSN Switzerland was officially launched on February 15 with a conference under the banner 'Where Society, Science and Politics Create Solutions.' The network claims to have 19 members from key institutions around Switzerland who are committed to implementing SDGs at the local level.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 26 February 2018

UNESCAP, Islamic Development Bank Sign Landmark Agreement

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – One of the world’s largest multilateral development banks, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), has launched 'Engage', a new digital platform which will promote technological and scientific solutions to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

IsDB President Dr. Bandar Hajjar announced on February 21 the launch of the new platform at an event hosted at Bloomberg's European Headquarters in London, together with UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Dr. Hayat Sindi, Chief Scientific Advisor to IsDB, and a group of business, innovation and development experts.