News Overview

BY STEFAN UHLENBROOK AND CLAUDIA RINGLER As we mark World Water Week, water, land, energy, forest, and biodiversity systems around the world are under extreme stress from climate change and other anthropogenic pressures. These systems are all critical to food and nutrition security, as well as rural livelihoods and the broader economy. These systems are also strongly interconnected: The availability of

BY SHERWIN GABRIEL, DIRK VAN SEVENTER, CHANNING ARNDT, ROBERT J. DAVIES, LAURENCE HARRIS, SHERMAN ROBINSON AND JENNA WILF While we have learned a lot about the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and policy responses to it, many countries continue to face difficult decisions as they confront new waves of infections and medium term impacts. In this post, Sherwin Gabriel and colleagues present results

BY NAMUKOLO COVIC, ACHIM DOBERMANN,JESSICA FANZO, SPENCER HENSON, MARIO HERRERO,PRABHU PINGALI AND STEVE STAAL The upcoming United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) is an important moment to garner political and financial attention to address the most pressing issues facing food systems, including food security, diet quality, and environmental sustainability. It also comes at a critical time, amid competing national and

BY PHUONG HONG NGUYEN, SHIVANI KACHWAHA, RASMI AVULA, PURNIMA MENON AND MICHAEL WANG Fears of COVID-19 transmission, along with social-distancing measures, have disrupted many important public services worldwide, both directly and indirectly. In India, Phuong Nguyen and colleagues conducted surveys to compare use of public health and nutrition services before, during and after COVID-19 lockdowns in the state of Uttar

BY CLAUDIA RINGLER Women farmers around the world are a key constituency in agriculture and in efforts to build sustainable, climate-resilient food systems, yet they are often marginalized by or left out of agricultural extension services that tend to target men. Is this because it simply does not pay to target women farmers with advice on climate resilience strategies? Or

BY MELISSA HIDROBO,VALERIE MUELLER,SHALINI ROY AND MICHAEL WANG Migration is a crucial element for economic development, as it offers workers in low- and middle-income countries ways to diversify and increase their income as well as ways to smooth their consumption over time. In addition, migration allows workers to send remittances, providing their households with the resources needed for investments. Yet

BY JULIE KURTZ With the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting livelihoods, and the new African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) now beginning to influence food flows, agricultural trade in Africa is in a state of flux, with both challenges and opportunities. While AfCFTA implementation has begun, some crucial negotiations remain to be completed, and the full scope of its impact is not

BY ROOSMARIJN VERSTRAETEN The COVID–19 pandemic, ongoing conflicts, and other problems made 2020 a difficult year for global nutrition. Knowledge will be crucial in addressing current nutrition issues and advancing the nutrition agenda for 2021 and beyond. Transform Nutrition West Africa (TNWA), a project led by IFPRI and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2017-2021 and now