Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

  View this email in your browser A Word from the Director Dear food systems colleagues and partners, Addis Ababa became the global center of food systems action last week, as the UNFSS+4 Stocktake gathered over 3,500 people to drive transformation forward. I am deeply grateful to the Governments of Ethiopia and Italy for co-hosting this milestone event, and to all the governments, partners, and organizations whose active engagement made it a success. Together, we have achieved significant progress since 2021: 130 countries have developed national pathways for food systems transformation, including 63% now with implementation plans; 62% have embedded food systems into national climate, biodiversity, and development plans; 169 nations are delivering school meal programmes; and International Financial Institutions have exceeded their $15 billion target, disbursing $17.8 billion to support low- and middle-income countries. These milestones show that food systems are not simply problem...

In 2014 The Water Institute at the University of North Carolina hosted conference on the Water, Food, Energy and Climate Nexus. It played an important role in the discussion in the SDG Open Working Group on the interlinkages between Goals. In 2016 Jamie Bartram head of the Water Institute and I brought together some of the key presentations from the conference into a book ' The Water, Food, Energy and Climate Nexus: Challenges and an agenda for action'. We invited the then Prince of Wales to write the Foreword which he agreed to do. The issues he raised in 2016 have moved even more to the centre of the political agenda. The climate crisis has accelerated and the links between their impacts on food, water and energy are now clear to anyone who is looking. In 2016 the idea of the circular economy was not yet being discussed in the negotiations. In 2022 the new negotiations on a Plastic Convention have it as a central part of the negotiations. His insights into the challenges we f...

  Briefing note by the   High-Level   Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition 14 April 2022 (this is from the FAO web site for references go here  ) 1.      Food security and nutrition crises The war instigated by the Russian Federation against Ukraine has major implications for global food security and nutrition (FSN). The war has triggered new crises in food systems on top of existing challenges that were already undermining the global community’s goal of achieving Sustainable Development Goal #2: “Zero hunger”.   Most immediately, the war has sparked a major humanitarian emergency in Ukraine that is violating people’s right to food and livelihood. Many towns and regions in Ukraine are experiencing a breakdown of the enabling environment for FSN, including the deterioration of health services, water and energy services, care of children and the elderly, social prot...