COVID-19 has widened our vocabulary to include words like zoonoses, pathogens, spillovers, and coronavirus, to name a few. But these are not new words for many scientists who research biodiversity and the relationship between human activity and ecological systems.
BONGA, Ethiopia – Nestled in the dense rainforest of the Kafa Biosphere Reserve in southwest Ethiopia are thousands of genetic variants of coffee – an important seed bank of wild Arabica that faces extinction as a result of climate change.
An international network of funders has just released its first assessment of CGIAR, the world’s largest public agricultural research network. The assessment was conducted by MOPAN, the Multilateral Organisation Performance Assessment Network, a group run by 19 countries that share a common interest in assessing the effectiveness of the major multilateral organizations that they fund, including UN agencies, international financial institutions and global funds. In 2019, CGIAR was one of the five organizations assessed by MOPAN, in a process led by Norad and USAID.
Millions of people depend on the major Sahelian wetlands to meet their food and financial needs. These ecosystems are home to a multitude of waterbirds – migratory and resident – and provide essential livelihoods and services to local communities.
World’s worst humanitarian crisis now aggravated by Desert Locusts and COVID-19.
The Commission will provide new funding of €70 million in Yemen, as the coronavirus threatens to worsen one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, where famine already looms.
Overall, imports of organic agri-food products remained stable between 2018 and 2019. In terms of products, imports of organic cereals decreased in 2019, while imports of tropical fruit, oilcakes, soyabeans and sugar increased.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected Kenya creating an urgent need for timely data and evidence to help monitoring and mitigating the impact of the crisis. We are carrying out phone surveys with households and firms to provide an evidence base for policy makers in Kenya to craft both public health and economic responses to the crisis.
To help repair the economic and social damage brought by the coronavirus pandemic, kick-start European recovery, and protect and create jobs, the European Commission presented on 27 May 2020 a major recovery plan for Europe based on harnessing the full potential of the EU budget. This proposal includes a new recovery instrument, Next Generation EU, within a revamped long-term EU budget. In this context, the Commission is proposing to reinforce the funds available to support farmers and rural areas as well as the fisheries sector in recovering and delivering the European Green Deal and in particular the new Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies
Zones devastated by conflict, terrorism in the Sahel, locust invasions... the list of obstacles to development in Africa goes on. The Covid-19 epidemic is just one of many. However, the crisis looks like showing the resilience of the continent's farmers, particularly those in West Africa, focusing on food crops. Analysis by Patrick Dugué, an agronomist and expert in the diversity of African farming systems at CIRAD.
Agriculture and land use are key to climate mitigation as they have the ability both to deliver substantial emission reductions and to offset emissions from other sectors through carbon sequestration. This policy brief from the EU DEEDS* project, of which CIRAD's Thierry Brunelle was co-author, outlines the priorities for EU research and innovation (R&I) to promote sustainable agriculture and land use in Europe. It draws on the outcomes of a workshop organized at CIRAD in November 2019, on the Montpellier Declaration of the 2019 World Congress on Agroforestry and on CIRAD's work on soil carbon sequestration.
by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
The COVID-19 virus is taking hold across the African continent and the situation is evolving quickly. Many African governments have put in place measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic, but at the same time, disruptions to supply chains and domestic production combined with weak external demand, the sharp fall in commodity prices, as well as disruption in key service sectors such as tourism, are putting people’s jobs and livelihoods at risk.
Dashboard houses food systems data from more than 230 countries and territories.
The World Bank’s community-driven development (CDD) operations draw from a strong track record of moving funds quickly and flexibly in response to crises, such as in Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami. Such platforms can quickly support immediate action to help those in need during COVID-19. In Indonesia, COVID-19 presents urgent challenges for the 25 million people living in poverty. In response, the Government of Indonesia has adapted CDD platforms to meet the needs of vulnerable communities.
A solar power plant in the Moroccan desert is so big it can be seen from space. The Noor Concentrated Solar Power Complex is the world’s largest development of its kind. Financed by the Climate Investment Funds, the World Bank Group, and other partners, the solar complex supplies clean energy to 2 million people. It is the cornerstone of Morocco’s ambitious plan to meet 42% of the country’s energy needs with renewables by the end of 2020.
One of the most powerful cyclones to hit the coast of Africa devasted the city of Beira, Mozambique, in March 2019. Cyclone Idai brought damaging winds, torrential rain, and claimed hundreds of lives. Flooding would have been even more severe but for recent improvements in a stormwater drainage system under a project to build resilience to climate change.
The Knowledge for Implementation and Impact Initiative has developed an interactive ‘tools map’, designed to strengthen knowledge to accelerate progress in scaling up implementation and impact on nutrition.
CARACAS, May 29, 2020 - A plane carrying 12 tonnes of humanitarian aid, aimed at providing nutritional support and improving access to safe water for thousands of families, has landed in the country to support the United Nations humanitarian response. With this shipment, the United Nations has brought more than 100 tons of humanitarian assistance to Venezuela since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to generous funding from the international community.
