How to mend the world’s broken food systems
24/7/2023: The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit launched a global drive to transform the way humanity grows, processes and transports food. Prior to the second summit, a senior official from the UN Environment Programme discusses mounting concerns about the planet’s long-term ability to feed a fast-growing human population.
Source: UN Environment Programme
Nigeria’s economic reforms fail to protect vulnerable citizens
28/7/2023: In May the Nigerian government discontinued fuel subsidies, an action long recommended by economic advisers. In the first month after the subsidy was cut, the government saved $530 million but the poorest are struggling to cope with rising prices.
Source: Devex
UK spending on refugees may no longer count as aid
26/7/2023: In 2022 the UK diverted 29% of its overseas development assistance budget to pay the hotel and other bills for asylum-seekers. Its new Illegal Migration Act - which threatens to detain and deport asylum-seekers - may put a stop to this accounting practice.
Source: Devex
Bridgetown Agenda author rejects idea of climate reparations
24/7/2023: A working and financed climate loss and damage fund is seen by many experts as essential to clinching a global agreement at COP 28 later this year. Complex negotiations to set up the fund are off track as many high-income countries are sensitive to the blurry line between reparations and funding loss and damage.
Source: Devex
Putin to skip BRICS summit in fear of ICC arrest
19/7/2023: Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend a BRICS nations summit in South Africa next month, ending months of speculation he could be detained under an International Criminal Court arrest warrant. As an ICC member South Africa would be expected to implement the warrant.
Source: The East African
How will the end of the Ukraine grain deal hurt Africa?
19/7/2023: Russia has quit a deal that allows the safe passage of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. Could this move exacerbate the hunger crisis in parts of Africa, a major wheat importer?
Source: DW
Africa’s fractured relationship with the ICC
17/7/2023: African leaders have complained about wrongful targeting by the International Criminal Court during the 25 years since its founding — but some African legal experts say those claims are unjustified.
Source: DW
Water – a weapon of war or a tool for peace?
11/7/2023: The recent Kakhovka dam disaster in Ukraine is a painful reminder of how destruction of water infrastructure can cause enormous suffering in times of war. Researchers who have studied Yemen, Libya, and Syria say that attacks on civilian and environmental infrastructure have become more common in the past decade.
Source: Inter Press Service
African states detail their needs on World Bank reform
13/7/2023: Seeking World Bank reform, African states argue that food security, water, and affordable energy are more important than the demands of wealthy Western countries that focus on climate change and pandemics. This consensus was reached ahead of the G20 finance ministers’ meeting.
Source: Devex
SDG hunger goal slumps further behind 2030 target
12/7/2023: The UN flagship global food security report has found that in 2022 between 691 million and 783 million people were hungry, 122 million more than in 2019 before the pandemic. The world is being pushed further away from meeting the UN's near hopeless goal to eliminate hunger by 2030.
Source: Devex