New and old challenges: Conflict, climate change and COVID-19 impacts on rising acute food insecurity
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The poorest continue bearing the burden of global challenges: How can we transform agri-food systems so that no one is left behind?
Statement of the Global Network against Food Crises on the release of the Global Report on Food Crises 2021
One year after COVID-19 spread across the world, the 2021 edition of the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) confirms dire projections. The pandemic and related containment measures have aggravated the impact of pre-existing drivers of fragility, notably conflict and climate change. The resulting economic hardship has widened inequalities and exposed the structural vulnerabilities of local and global food systems, hitting already fragile contexts and vulnerable groups particularly hard. This situation requires urgent and decisive action.
Transforming food systems and investing in Nutrition for Growth - staple food fortification and the role of the private sector
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Global food systems are powered by private sector investment and entrepreneurs, micro, small, medium, and large. Staple food fortification is an extremely effective, low-cost, food systems intervention with enormous potential to reduce micronutrient malnutrition across large populations.
Effective and sustainable fortification is only possible where the public sector (which has the mandate and responsibility to improve the health of the population) and the private sector (which has experience and expertise in food production and marketing) collaborate to develop, produce, and promote micronutrient-fortified foods.
Reaching the most vulnerable with fortified foods - consolidating gains in salt iodization, edible oil and biofortified crops
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Webinar 1 of the Second Global Summit on Food Fortification Series - #FutureFortified
At least 340 million children under 5 (one in two) suffer from hidden hunger, known as micronutrient malnutrition.
Large scale food fortification (LSFF) is the addition of vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin A, vitamin D, iron, zinc, and folic acid, to staple foods like wheat or maize flour, edible oils and fats, salt, sugar, and rice. Biofortification aims to increase nutrient levels in crops during plant growth rather than through manual means during processing.
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For this special edition we asked our writers and readers of FT Health for their thoughts on global health for the year ahead. Here are some of their priorities.
We start with lessons from the current crisis.
Andrew Jack, global education editor and FT Health founder, says:
Even as policymakers cope with the continuing demands of coronavirus, they need to focus on two areas. The first is how to ensure investments being put in place for testing, surveillance and response can be sustained and scaled to apply to a wide range of future pandemic threats. That means more monitoring of a broader range of infectious diseases and better mechanisms to share information.