Archive

Timely Utterances

As Labour Day marks another day of meetings on sustainable development for the UN’s Rio+20, I had the good fortune to encounter a quote that is relevant to all multilateral negotiations and probably most human communications: “Not everything we know can be disclosed. Not everything that can be disclosed can be considered a timely utterance. […]

Determination Overcomes Devastation

It was an honour to recently accompany Alice Kachere, a smallholder farmer from Malawi, when she gave a presentation at a meeting at the OECD. Her personal story is extraordinary. In 1999, she lost her husband, and due to a lack of marital land rights, once he died she lost all her land, her home, […]

Big Partnership Announcement

Now is the moment to prove public-private partnerships can work. At an international level, we can see a new way of operating emerging to work on the world’s most pressing problems.. In particular, recognition is great for the private sector to provide funding, operational expertise, and commercialisation know-how. This can augment programs of governments and […]

Food Content Contention

From lowering salt and sugar content, to labelling fats in dairy products; the pressure is on for the food sector to find ways to better improve health. In a recent interview with James Thellusson of Glasshouse Partnership, we explore the pressures the food sector is facing in the policy arena, domestically and internationally.

Sustainability Changes Coming

A Green Growth Strategy for Food and Agriculture by the OECD says governments can avoid a conflict between growth and the environment if the right incentives are put in place. It’s sensible recommendations are highlighted in the synopsis below.

G20

Agriculture is in desperate need of capital investment, especially to feed 10 billion people in 2050. After 30 years of underinvestment through removal of agricultural development funding and poor prices, there are now signals for farmers to do more.

G20

The first ever G20 agriculture ministers meeting will be held June 22-23. During this meeting and the G20 Leaders meeting in May, food price volatility will be top of mind. Hosted by the French government, there is concerns about excessive price volatility and speculation.

Non-Communicable Diseases

Health is on everyone’s mind. And leaders in the health sector are working to make it a major social issue, not just a medical one. Recently the associations for cancer, heart and diabetes have banded together to focus on chronic, non-communicable diseases (NCD).