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	As Hunger surges WFP appeals for Peace by FAO, World Food Programme   Protecting livelihoods and safeguarding food security in conflict contexts, by Jose Graziano da Silva, Director U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation   Over the past ten years, the number of violent conflicts around the world has increased significantly, having a negative impact on food production and availability.   Since 2000, almost half of all civil conflicts around the world have taken place in Africa, where land issues have played a significant role in 90 percent of the 30 interstate conflicts.   Competition over land and water can trigger conflict, threatening the welfare and the food security of the most vulnerable.   Such competition is often generated in areas where the natural resources are eroded or overused, or where climate change is affecting local ecosystems most. Moreover, conflict over land and water can fuel even greater conflict when it compounds poverty, unemployment or marginalization.   Over the past ten years, the number of violent conflicts - particularly internal conflicts - around the world has increased significantly, in particular in countries already facing food insecurity, hitting rural communities the hardest and having a negative impact on food production and availability.   Of the 815 million chronically food-insecure and malnourished people in the world, the vast majority - 489 million live in countries affected by conflict. The proportion is even more pronounced for undernourished children. Almost 122 million, or 75 percent, of stunted children under age five live in countries affected by conflict.   Achieving the first two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - eliminating extreme poverty and zero hunger - will not be possible unless the challenges posed by continuing conflict are addressed in which land and water are central.   Short term, stop gap measures are not enough. Lasting peacebuilding requires combining sustainable land tenure and water security with access to services and markets, as well as complementary social protection programmes, which provide immediate access to food and income as well as a measure of risk management.   In particular targeting women as the first beneficiaries of programs to secure their land tenure rights is a fundamental step to build sustainable household livelihoods and resilience, contribute to peacebuilding and to promote food security.   Both in times of conflict and stability, FAO plays a unique role in protecting, restoring and developing the livelihoods of farmers, fishers, herders foresters and others who depend upon agriculture and natural resources for sustenance, security and prosperity.   FAO works to prevent conflict over access to natural resources.   FAO has a three-pronged approach in support of sustainable peace: first, working on the drivers of conflict to minimize or positively transform and resolve conflicts driven by natural resources, agriculture or food; second, work in conflict to save lives and livelihoods; and third, work through conflict by advancing sustainable development, including reducing poverty, addressing inequality, promoting sustainable livelihoods and natural resource management.   FAO has taken practical steps along these lines of a number of countries. Land issues are often instrumental in consolidating peace in a post conflict context. We have provided crucial support on land tenure in countries such as Colombia, Cote d'Ivoire, Philippines, Angola and Mozambique going through a process of post-conflict reconciliation.   Conflicts over land and water among pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and other communities fuel much of the instability of the Sahel region and other regions in Central and Eastern Africa. In Niger, FAO is working with partners to prevent the outbreak of conflicts related to natural resources. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, FAO has worked with partners to reduce disputes over land.   Forest dependent communities, often composed of indigenous peoples or ethnic minorities, face historic marginalization and political exclusion, leading to an increased probability of conflict. FAO is working in countries such as Indonesia, Peru and Uganda to secure greater tenure rights for forest dependent communities as part of a process to facilitate conflict prevention and resolution.   One key tool in FAO's approach to addressing the role of land in conflict is the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. Adopted by all UN member countries since 2012, the guidelines are a set of principles and good practices for improved land governance.   They provide guidance for conflict resolution for countries to respond through peaceful, fair, reliable, gender-sensitive, accessible and non-discriminatory ways of resolving disputes over legitimate tenure rights to land, fisheries and forests. FAO has supported the implementation of the guidelines in a number of countries including Colombia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Sudan.   Local struggles over land and water drive a large share of conflicts globally, and particularly in Sub Saharan Africa, threatening to derail collective efforts to achieve the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. Sustainable development is not possible without building peace, and peace is not possible without long term, comprehensive measures at sustainable development, with land and water at the center.   http://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition/en/ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-report-food-crises-2018 http://www.fao.org/emergencies/emergency-types/conflicts/en/   As Hunger surges WFP appeals for Peace. (WFP)   The United Nations World Food Programme today made an impassioned plea for peace amid mounting evidence of the links between conflict, migration and rising hunger.   Concerns are growing that progress in defeating global hunger is being reversed as record numbers of people flee their homes to escape fighting.   'Someday in the future, World Food Day will be a celebration of a peaceful and well-fed world. Sadly, that day seems very far off right now. We have far too much violence and conflict, and that is why we have more people who are hungry and in need of assistance'.   After steadily declining for over a decade, hunger is on the rise again and of the 815 million hungry people on the planet, 489 million live in countries affected by conflict, the annual UN report on food security and nutrition revealed last month.   'We call on the people in power, the people with guns, to stop the fighting now', said the Executive Director, who has met many people fleeing conflict and violence in Yemen, South Sudan and Bangladesh over the past few months.   'I saw their wounds with my own eyes and I heard their stories with my own ears. They were frightened, hungry and malnourished after enduring a nightmare that most people cannot even imagine. If we are truly going to end hunger, we must stop this kind of inhumanity'.   The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 report found that while most countries had achieved significant gains in reducing hunger in the last 25 years, progress in the majority of countries affected by conflict had stagnated or deteriorated. Conflicts can devastate the economy, disrupt agriculture and lead to forced population movements.   A WFP study published earlier this year established a link between hunger and migration. It found that countries with the highest level of hunger, coupled with armed conflict, have the highest outward migration. For each additional year of conflict and bloodshed, an extra 40 people out of 10,000 will flee their country. It showed that people often move several times within their own country before crossing borders, leaving behind their land, jobs and livelihoods.   In war-torn countries, where agriculture and trade is disrupted and the economy collapses, the cost of a simple, nutritious plate of food can be more than a day's wages. WFP has developed an index where we have worked out the cost of a basic plate of food to people in 33 developing countries as a share of their average daily income.   In Counting the Beans: The True Cost of a Plate of Food around the World, we show that in South Sudan, for example, the cost could be the equivalent of a New Yorker having to pay US$321 for a modest lunch - say a plate of bean stew cooked at home. At the height of the siege of the Syrian town of Deir Ezzor, the same meal worked out at nearly US$200. http://www.wfp.org/videos/archive   March 2018   Food insecurity in conflict-stricken countries continues to deteriorate, meaning humanitarian efforts to provide affected communities with food relief and livelihood support remain extremely critical, FAO and WFP have told the UN Security Council.   Their latest report to the Council on food insecurity covers 16 countries: Afghanistan, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Iraq, Lebanon regarding the Syrian refugees, Liberia, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine and Yemen, plus the transboundary Lake Chad Basin area. Access the 53 page report: http://bit.ly/2DX2dIu   http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/food-crises-continue-strike-and-acute-hunger-intensifies http://www.fsinplatform.org/global-report-food-crises-2019   Dec. 2017   Conflict and protracted crises in the Near East and North Africa undermining efforts to eradicate hunger (FAO News).   'When countries in the region are suffering from an escalation of conflicts, the aim to tackle the region's deepest concerns of malnutrition, water scarcity and climate change becomes more urgent', says Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).   The 2017 edition of the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) highlights in particular how an ongoing intensification of violence is opening a wide 'hunger gap' between countries being affected by conflicts and those that are not.   In the region's countries directly impacted by conflict, 27.2 per cent of all people were chronically hungry, or undernourished, during the 2014-16 period. That's six times higher than the share of the population that was undernourished in countries not affected by strife.   Meanwhile, 'severe food insecurity', another metric used by FAO to measure hunger, in conflict-affected countries is now double that in non-conflict countries.   In Syria, violence has provoked a 67 per cent reduction in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and severely undermined food security. About 70 to 80 per cent of Syrians now need humanitarian assistance, while 50 per cent require food assistance.   In Iraq, where violence has led to for 58 per cent decline in GDP, 30 per cent of the population needs humanitarian assistance while nine per cent requires food assistance.   Yemen is also being wracked by conflict, leading to a situation in which 70 to 80 per cent of the population are in need humanitarian assistance and 50 per cent require food assistance. Libya is another hot spot where conflict is undermining food security: http://bit.ly/2D0FWWc   * 2019 Report: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1192641/icode/ http://news.un.org/en/story/2019/05/1038111 Visit the related web page
	Increasing inequality drives instability and conflict by Siddharth Chatterjee U.N. Development Programme, agencies Kenya   Oct. 2017   Increasing inequality hinders economic growth and undermines social cohesion, increases political and social tensions and drives instability and conflict.   Poverty is a blight, and one that disproportionately affects sub-Saharan Africa. It is a vast and complex issue whose tentacles reach into many areas, including climate change, sustainable development and crucially global security. The link between poverty and violent extremism is compelling, and means that if we want to address extremism, we must fight inequality too.   This year's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Oct. 17 takes as its theme 'A path toward peaceful and inclusive societies'. This is timely, coming as it does just a few weeks after the release of a landmark survey into the forces driving young Africans towards violent extremism.   Published by the U.N. Development Programme, "Journey to Extremism in Africa: drivers, incentives and the tipping point for recruitment" presents compelling evidence that violent extremism can never be beaten if feelings of deprivation and marginalization, especially among the young, are not addressed.   Almost 500 former or in occasional cases current voluntary recruits to extremist organizations such as Al Shabaab, Boko Haram or Ansar Dine were interviewed for the survey. Most cited lack of employment, healthcare, education, security and housing as reasons for joining the groups, with very few mentioning religious ideology.   In Kenya as in many other countries, the regions acknowledged to be flashpoints for radicalisation and violent extremism are synonymous with extreme poverty, high illiteracy levels and under-investment in basic services. The majority of those living in these regions have for years believed themselves to be excluded from the national development agenda.   The findings drive home the reality that a focus on security-led responses to extremism cannot provide lasting solutions, but rather that confronting the challenges of radicalism and terrorist threats, particularly in Africa, calls for action on a range of social, cultural, economic and political fronts.   The report estimates that extremism caused 33,000 deaths in Africa between 2011 and 2016, with related displacement and economic devastation causing some of the worst humanitarian disasters on the continent.   Numerous studies show that increasing inequality hinders economic growth and undermines social cohesion, increases political and social tensions and drives instability and conflict.   Achim Steiner, the UNDP administrator at an event in New York about "SDGs in Action: Eradicating Poverty and Promoting Inclusive Prosperity in a Changing World", emphasized, the critical importance of leaving no one behind and reaching the furthest behind first.A further challenge to Africa's progress is highlighted in the latest UNDP Africa Human Development Report, which shows that gender inequalities continue to hobble the continent's structural, economic and social transformation.   When women attain higher measures of economic and social wellbeing, benefits accrue to all of society. Yet too many women and girls, simply because of their gender, cannot fulfil their potential due to lack of education, early marriage, sexual and physical violence, inadequate family planning services, and high incidences of maternal mortality.   According to the UNDP report, gender inequality is costing sub-Saharan Africa 95 billion dollars a year, equivalent to about six percent of the region's GDP.   The challenge of creating economic opportunities for Africa's youth is monumental. Consider this. Every 24 hours, nearly 33,000 youth across Africa join the search for employment. About 60 percent will be joining the army of the unemployed, adding to existing social and economic pressures.   Government can help by incentivising the informal sector that employs the overwhelming majority of Kenyans would be a step in the right direction. Reforming an education system that ill-prepares the young for entrepreneurship and business would be another.   With only 13 years to achieve the SDGs, the search for solutions must make use of the evidence on the causes, consequences and trajectories of violent extremism. If Africa is to curtail the spread of violent extremism and achieve sustainable development, there must be determined focus on the health, education and employment of disadvantaged youth.   Only by tackling entrenched inequalities both economic and gender-based can Africa achieve sustainable prosperity, and end the scourge of poverty.   http://tmsnrt.rs/2yraJww http://bit.ly/2zxhCdK http://bit.ly/2x2XkXN   * Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Kenya.   http://journey-to-extremism.undp.org/en http://survivors-of-extremism.undp.org/en Visit the related web page
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