How improved nutrition can save the world - with Italian celebrity chef Cristina Bowerman and RAI TV presenter Luca Rosini

What:       Why women are key to better nutrition and global poverty eradication – an event organised by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) at the Perugia International Journalism Festival.

When:      15:00-16:00, Saturday, 6 April 2019

Where:     Centro  Servizi G. Alessi, Perugia

Who:         Cristina Bowerman, award-winning Italian celebrity chef, Luca Rosini, journalist and presenter of Uno Mattina in Famiglia on RAI Uno, Linda Dorigo, photographer, journalist and film producer, and IFAD's nutrition and development expert, Antonella Cordone.

Story:          Improved nutrition targeted at young women can reduce poverty. But it's not enough to look at improving what they eat. We must also focus on guaranteeing respect for their rights and those of future generations.

  

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE GAMBIA’S PRESIDENT BARROW ON HIS FIRST DAY IN OFFICE

Dear President Barrow,

 

Welcome. It’s your first day behind the desk and you have an enormous job on your hands.  Former President Yahya Jammeh has finally left the country after a tense stand-off; many of the people who fled in fear of violence last week are returning; businesses reopening; and the whole nation is preparing to listen to what your first moves will be. 

Your Excellency, I’d like you to take a moment to think about that. I’d like you to imagine a little girl standing alongside her parents in the crowd listening to you address the public.  This little girl’s future is now in your hands. 

For the past 22 years, her parents, like all of our citizens, have been forced into silence. They were unable to complain when they could not access basic services such as healthcare or education and saw their rights being derailed by a dictator.  If they did have the courage to speak out they may well have faced arrest, disappearance or torture. This silencing, this fear, this terrible way of operating must stop. Now. 

UNDP at 50: World must step up to beat poverty by 2030

Women in a training centre for traditional handicrafts in Bangladesh

New York City - Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is only possible with a broad coalition of leaders from government, civil society, multilaterals and the private sector, said Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP) on the eve of a major Ministerial Meeting to mark the organisation’s 50th anniversary.

The SDGs are the 17 ambitious goals that set out the world’s development agenda between now and 2030, and include a commitment to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality and spread peace and justice.
“Government leadership is vital for achieving the SDGs, together with partnerships with civil society, the private sector, philanthropy and the multilateral system. Working together, we can achieve our goals of a world which is free of poverty and inequality,” Helen Clark said.

The role of biological diversity in sustainable development

22 May 2015 – As the post-2015 development agenda emerges, this year's theme for International Day of Biological Diversity reflects the importance of biodiversity in achieving sustainable development. Smallholder farmers in rural areas of developing countries produce much of the food in the developing world, and given that food availability needs to increase by 60-70 per cent by 2050, in the future we will depend on them to produce even more. Biodiversity plays a vital role in smallholder farmer food production systems and contributes to increased crop yields and incomes, maintaining healthy ecosystems, mitigating climate change, and securing sustainable livelihoods and access to clean and safe water.

IFAD to showcase the importance of investing in rural people at the G20 Agricultural Ministers Meeting

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will join the world’s leaders of agriculture today in Istanbul, Turkey at the meeting of the G20 Agriculture Ministers to advocate on behalf of the 76 per cent of the world poorest people who reside in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

Josefina Stubbs, Associate Vice-President of IFAD, who will represent the Fund at the meeting, will take critical messages to the ministers about the importance of investing in rural people in developing countries.

“IFAD believes it is essential to bring millions of smallholder farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs, women and men, into the financial mainstream, if we want them to become capable investors who can drive sustainable and inclusive agriculture and food systems,” Stubbs said prior to her departure. “IFAD is proud to be on the frontline of this area, through our support to rural finance institutions across the developing world.”