By Farai Shawn Matiashe MUTARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — Ruth Rugeje, 38, monitors plants of cabbages, a pale green leafy vegetable, grown in empty two-litre bottles in the backyard of her home in Mutapa, a high-density suburb in the central Zimbabwean city of Gweru. This innovative farmer picked these plastic bottles from the illegal dumping sites […]
Global Food Crisis: Cash Offers Hope to the World’s Most Vulnerable
By Edward Johnson | World Food Programme (WFP) Amid an unprecedented global hunger crisis, cash offers one vehicle to reach the world’s most vulnerable people in ways that can lift communities and economies. ROME (IDN) — While skyrocketing food prices have fallen recently, they still remain high, with the war in Ukraine driving up the […]
UN Chief Visits ‘Vessels of Hope’ Before returning to New York
By Radwan Jakeem NEW YORK (IDN) — UN Secretary-General António Guterres oversaw on August 20 the departure of two ships involved in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a UN-brokered operation to bring urgently needed hunger relief to the Horn of Africa. Mr. Guterres flew into Istanbul on August 20 from Chisinau, Moldova—where he was hosted […]
Humanitarian Food Grain on way to Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A UN-chartered vessel has been loaded with humanitarian food grain for Africa, in a first step toward releasing much needed food aid that had been trapped in the Ukraine. The vessel will carry 23,000 tons of grain for Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya as part of […]
Congo Oil Auction Plans in ‘Last Refuge of Biodiversity’ Shocks Environmentalists
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — As massive floods and endless droughts, unleashed by global climate change, take lives and leave homes a twisted pile of sticks, the Democratic Republic of Congo will take a dangerous step backwards—opening up the Congo Basin to fossil fuel development. Sections of a renowned tropical […]
A New Study Tells Where Our Food Comes From
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) — Since the start of agriculture 10,000 years ago, many crops have been domesticated. However, not all are made equal as some play an important role in providing food and nutritional security globally, including wheat, corn, rice, and potatoes. At the same time, the globalization efforts of the past […]
G7 Carped for Failure to Tackle Hunger Crisis
By Jutta Wolf BERLIN (IDN) — “Faced with the worst hunger crisis in a generation, the G7 have simply failed to take the action that is needed. Many millions will face terrible hunger and starvation as a result,” declared Max Lawson, head of inequality policy at Oxfam International. “Instead of doing what is needed, the […]
Achieving SDGs by 2030 in Peril
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) — After two issues focusing mainly on the impact of the Ukraine-Russia war on the achievement of SDGs, this month we wanted to shift the focus, but it was not as easy as reflected in the articles published here. The United Nations has revised its global growth estimates due to […]
There Should Be No Crisis in World Food Supplies
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The world is lather about the jump in world food prices in world food prices. Just this last weekend the Minister of Agriculture of Egypt was saying that, without assured grain supplies from Russia and Ukraine, he expected a rise of widespread malnutrition.
Southern Africa Feels the Pinch of Russia-Ukraine War
By Jeffrey Moyo HARARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — Life is no longer the same for Zimbabwe’s shop owner, 34-year-old Richwell Mhasi in the capital Harare who has had to park his car at home, switching to his bicycle, cycling to and from work amid the rising prices of fuel since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war […]