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Hunger and malnutrition have reached critical levels in the Arab region as access to basic foods has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, according to a United Nations report released today. Produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD),the World Food Programme (WFP),…

We live in a world data-abundant world and yet basic information about income and wealth inequality are missing. Growth numbers are published every year by governments across the globe, but they do not inform about how growth is distributed across the population – about who gains and who loses from economic policies. Accessing such data is critical for democracy. This report presents…

Climate change and extreme weather events are heightening levels of acute food insecurity and food crises around the world. As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and deals with other drivers of food security, poverty and inequality, the international community is calling for a climate-resilient and sustainable recovery. Supporting the shift away from disaster response toward…

If the world is to transition towards agrifood systems that are more sustainable and equitable, small-scale production systems will be key to progress. Large parts of the world depend on small-scale systems for maintaining food security and nutrition (Lowder, Sánchez and Bertini, 2021; Herrero et al., 2017). Despite this centrality, neither small-scale production systems nor small-scale producers…

Water scarcity is one of the major challenges in the 19 countries of the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region. The lack of water is affecting important irrigated areas, limiting the increase of food production needed to address the growing demand due to population growth. In most countries of the NENA region, the need to use non-conventional water resources, including brackish water, is well…

Around 1.23 billion people were employed in the world’s agrifood systems in 2019, and more than three times that figure, or almost half the world’s population, live in households linked to agrifood systems, according to new research by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Of these 1.23 billion people, 857 million worked in primary agricultural…