Water and Nutrition: Harmonizing actions for the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition and the United Nations Water Action Decade

Progress for both SDG 2 and SDG 6 has been unsatisfactory, with several indicators worsening over time, including an increase in the number of undernourished, overweight and obese people, as well as rapid increases in the number of people at risk of severe water shortages. This lack of progress is exacerbated by climate change and growing regional and global inequities in food and water security, including access to good quality diets, leading to increased violation of the human rights to water and food. Reversing these trends will require a much greater effort on the part of water, food security, and nutrition communities, including stronger performances by the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition and the United Nations International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development. To date, increased collaboration by these two landmark initiatives is lacking, as neither work program has systematically explored linkages or possibilities for joint interventions. Collaboration is especially imperative given the fundamental challenges that characterize the promotion of one priority over another. Without coordination across the water, food security, and nutrition communities, actions toward achieving SDG2 on zero hunger may contribute to further degradation of the world’s water resources and as such, further derail achievement of the UN Decade of Action on Water and SDG 6 on water and sanitation. Conversely, actions to enhance SDG 6 may well reduce progress on the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition and SDG 2. This paper reviews these challenges as part of a broader analysis of the complex web of pathways that link water, food security and nutrition outcomes. Climate change and the growing demand for water resources are also considered, given their central role in shaping future water and nutrition security. The main conclusions are presented as three recommendations focused on potential avenues to deal with the complexity of the water-nutrition nexus, and to optimize outcomes

The role of water in transforming food systems

The United Nations Food Systems Summit aimed to chart a path toward transforming food systems toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the essentiality of water for food systems, however, the Summit has not sufficiently considered the role of water for food systems transformation. This focus is even more important due to rapidly worsening climate change and its pervasive impacts on food systems that are mediated through water. To avoid that water "breaks" food systems, key food systems actors should 1) Strengthen efforts to retain water-dependent ecosystems, their functions and services; 2) Improve agricultural water management; 3) Reduce water and food losses beyond the farmgate; 4) Coordinate water with nutrition and health interventions; 5) Increase the environmental sustainability of food systems; 6) Explicitly address social inequities; and 7) Improve data quality and monitoring for water-food system linkages

STATUS BEKERJA, STRUKTUR KELUARGA DAN KERAWANAN PANGAN RUMAH TANGGA DENGAN ANAK

AbstractHousehold food insecurity is an important issue because of its negative impact on children’s health and nutrition. This study aimed to analyze the effect of working status and family structure on food insecurity in households with children. The data used comes from the 2018 National Socio-Economic Survey. The analysis was carried out separately for poor and non-poor households using binary logistic regression. The results showed that households with heads in part-time work and those with unemployed heads were more likely to be food insecure than households with heads in full-time work in both households, whereas households with heads not in labor force were significantly more likely to be food insecure only in the poor households. In the poor households, single-male headed households were more likely to be food insecure than single-female headed households while in the non-poor households, the opposite occurred. Strengthening social safety nets, expanding employment opportunities and providing education about food insecurity needs to be done in households with children

Scenario and Policy of Decent Nutrition and Food Security in the Post-Covid-19 in Nepal

The Covid-19 has drawn a new debate on the issue of food security and nutrition. The literature suggests a positive relationship between food security and nutrition. For low-income countries, access to nutritious food has been challenging. Literature reveals that Nepal faces poor food security and nutrition for decades and this issue has been more surfaced after the Covid-19. This paper explores the prospect of food security along with nutrition based on secondary data and reviews. Food security has been associated with the production, stock, access, and utilization. The utilization normally refers to the use of varieties of nutrition for the human body that is related to the immunity system. Agriculture is the prime occupation of the country as the two-third population depends on agriculture for livelihood. However, the subsistence form of agriculture has been dominated. Due to the lack of agricultural production, Nepal faces poor nutrition and faces mal-nutrition problems. Many of the districts in the western and far-western hilly regions of the country have been faced with food scarcity and malnutrition has become a common phenomenon. Moreover, Covid 19 has further highlighted the issue of food security and nutrition. As the Covid-19 is related to immunity power and its association is with nutritious food is crucial. The policy of the government has prioritized from grass root level to eliminate hunger and malnutrition though there are still challenges

The future of plant biotechnology in a globalized and environmentally endangered world

This paper draws on the importance of science-based agriculture in order to throw light on the way scientific achievements are at the basis of modern civilization. An overview of literature on plant biotechnology innovations and the need to steer agriculture towards sustainability introduces a series of perspectives on how plant biotech can contribute to the major challenge of feeding our super population with enough nutritious food without further compromise of the environment. The paper argues that science alone will not solve problems. Three major forces - science, the economy and society - shape our modern world. There is a need for a new social contract to harmonize these forces. The deployment of the technologies must be done on the basis of ethical and moral values

FOOD INSECURITY and MALNUTRITION of AFRICA: A COMBINED ATTEMPT CAN REDUCE THEM

In the 21st century Africa is in the top levels of hunger and malnutrition in the world that is unharmonious with the vision of the African Union. Hunger and malnutrition is a common matter in almost all African countries and recently it is appeared to be increasing in most of the countries of the continent. Security of food and nutrition is a fundamental right of every people. But many people of Africa are deprived from this right. About one-third of African children is undersized in their growth and suffers from various physical and mental complexities. The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 aims to end all forms of hun­ger and malnutrition globally by 2030, but Africa is off track. It is estimated that about 200 million people of Africa are undernourished. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the African food and nutrition security system in the long-term. The pandemic has thrown the continent in serious uncertainty to the implementation of the SDG 2. Food production of this continent should be increased with the proportional to the increased populations. This study tries to discuss the food and nutrition situation of Africa and provides a constructive guideline to overcome it