View previous stories
	Providing the global population a healthy and nutritious diet within safe environmental limits by The EAT Foundation Sweden   Providing the growing global population a healthy and nutritious diet within safe environmental limits is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity today. It can only be addressed through an integration of knowledge and action in the interwoven areas of food, health and sustainability.   The EAT Foundation builds on the work of the EAT Initiative, created by the Stordalen Foundation and Stockholm Resilience Centre in 2013. Together with the Wellcome Trust, they launched the EAT Foundation in March 2016. The EAT foundation’s ambition is to reform the global food system and enable us to feed a growing global population with healthy food from a healthy planet. The three organisations will use their unique experience in health, science, policy and sustainability to convene experts and decision makers who can transform the way we eat.   EAT aims to stimulate interdisciplinary research by establishing collaboration across scientific disciplines that interact with food issues, to improve nutrition and food safety and tackle global health and environmental challenges including obesity and non-communicable diseases, climate change and ecosystem degradation.   EAT’s scientific output is guided by an Advisory Board that brings together over 30 world-leading experts in the fields of food science and policy, nutrition, public health, environmental sustainability, veterinary sciences, and economics.   A long-term focus for the initiative is to establish a set of practical guidelines for consumers and the private sector defining healthy and sustainable diets, which can improve outcomes from field to fork.   EAT also aims to encourage innovations and business development along the food value chain that will benefit public health and the environment.   Finally, EAT aims to provide policy makers with evidence to inform decision-making, and will suggest strategies to change consumer behavior in all segments of the population.   Every spring EAT hosts a high-level forum, EAT Stockholm Food Forum, which brings together the brightest minds from science, politics, business and civil society to exchange ideas on how to shift food systems towards sustainability, health, security, and equity within the boundaries of our planet.   EAT’s vision is a transformation of the global food system to sustainably feed a healthy population of over nine billion people by 2050.   Fulfilling this vision will require major cooperation across countries, stakeholder groups and disciplines because the health and environmental problems associated with food are interconnected and span all sectors of society.   The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines a sustainable diet as one that has low environmental impact, contributes to food security and to a healthy life for present and future generations. FAO highlight the need for diets and food systems that protect and respect biodiversity and ecosystems, are culturally acceptable, accessible, economically fair and affordable, nutritionally adequate, safe and healthy, and optimize natural and human resources.   With a holistic perspective on health and environmental aspects of food systems it is possible to identify solutions and innovations that promote diets that enhance human and planetary health. But to achieve this broad view, we need more knowledge about the interconnections between food and agriculture, health and nutrition, environmental sustainability, and socio-economic factors.   Scientific research is at the heart of the EAT Foundation and, with a network of world leading universities and research institutions, EAT drives a shared objective of advancing knowledge about the nexus of food, health and sustainability.   The focus of EAT’s research and actions is on facilitating agriculture and food processing that minimize health and environmental impacts; new technologies to reduce waste; improved supply chain efficiency; effective environmental and health regulations; interventions to improve nutrition; innovative approaches to shifting consumption; reducing poverty through food systems; and population-level education on food, health and sustainability.   http://eatforum.org/ http://eatforum.org/archive/#videos Visit the related web page
	90 per cent of domestic workers excluded from social protection by International Labour Organization   14 March 2016   New ILO study highlights huge decent work deficits for domestic workers throughout the world.   60 million of the world’s 67 million domestic workers still do not have access to any kind of social security coverage, says a new ILO study entitled “Social protection for domestic workers: Key policy trends and statistics ”.   “The vast majority of domestic workers are women, accounting for 80 per cent of all workers in the sector globally,” explained Isabel Ortiz, Director of the ILO Social Protection Department.   “Most of their work is undervalued and unprotected, when domestic workers become old or injured, they are fired, without a pension or adequate income support. This can and must be redressed.”   Domestic work is considered as a sector that is difficult to cover, partly because work is performed in private households and frequently for more than one employer. The occupation is also characterized by high job turnover, frequent in-kind payments, irregular wages and a lack of formal work contracts.   “Given that it is predominantly a female workforce highly subject to discrimination as well as social and economic vulnerability, policies to extend social protection to domestic workers are key elements in the fight against poverty and the promotion of gender equality,” said Philippe Marcadent, Chief of the ILO’s Inclusive Labour Markets, Labour Relations and Working Conditions Branch.   The largest gaps in social security coverage for domestic work are concentrated in developing countries, with Asia and Latin America representing 68 per cent of domestic workers worldwide.   However, the study finds that social protection deficits for domestic workers also persist in some industrialized countries.   In Italy, for example, some 60 per cent of domestic workers are not registered with, or contributing to, social security systems. In Spain and France, 30 per cent of domestic workers are excluded from social security coverage.   The study also warns that migrant domestic workers – currently estimated at 11.5 million worldwide – often face even greater discrimination.   Around 14 per cent of countries whose social security systems provide some type of coverage for domestic workers do not extend the same rights to migrant domestic workers.   “Looking at ways to improve the current coverage,” said Fabio Duran-Valverde, Senior ILO Economist, “there is no single protection model that works best for domestic workers everywhere. But mandatory coverage (instead of voluntary coverage) is a crucial element for achieving adequate and effective coverage under any system.”   However, because of the uniquely vulnerable situation of domestic workers, mandatory coverage will not be effective alone. Strategies should include – among other measures; fiscal incentives, registration plans, awareness-raising campaigns targeting domestic workers and their employers as well as service voucher mechanisms.   Domestic work should also be integrated into broader policies aimed at reducing informal work.   Finally, the report also demonstrates that coverage of domestic workers by social security schemes is feasible and affordable, including in lower middle and low-income countries, as evidence from Mali, Senegal and Viet Nam clearly demonstrates.   The study shows that there is a clear trend toward increased coverage, especially in developing countries. However, resolving the worldwide deficit of social security coverage for domestic workers still remains a major challenge. There is no justification for this group to remain excluded from social security which is a human right for all, concludes the ILO report.   http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/domestic-workers/lang--en/index.htm http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/social-security/lang--en/index.htm http://www.ilo.org/gender/Events/international-women-day/2016/lang--en/index.htm http://www.hrw.org/topic/womens-rights/domestic-workers Visit the related web page
	View more stories