New evidence of how climate change could damage food security is presented in a major new scientific report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Climate Change, Development, Energy Policy, and Food
Haiti's climate has changed over the past four decades. Annual mean temperatures have risen, and the rainy season now begins up to three months later than usual. Projections of future climate change indicate that annual mean temperatures will continue to rise over the course of the 21st century. Rainfall variability is also expected to increase, meaning more extreme droughts in the dry season and more intense rainfall in the wet season. Sea-level rise and increased storm surges are also expected. The coastal plains are increasingly subject to the influx of saltwater, and as ocean surges lead to saltier soils, farmers can no longer cultivate them. These factors will exacerbate current serious problems of flooding and erosion in coastal areas that lie in the direct path of tropical storms and hurricanes. In the absence of significant adaptation efforts, these dynamics will in turn have severe impacts on water resources, land, agriculture, and forests. Annual population growth of 1.5 per cent means over 11 million mouths to feed by 2020 and additional pressure on agricultural resources.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Poverty, Natural Disasters, and Infrastructure
Hunger is not and need never be inevitable. However climate change threatens to put back the fight to eradicate it by decades – and our global food system is woefully unprepared to cope with the challenge.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Climate Change, Development, and Food
The UK needs a safe world in which to trade and invest, and to be free from the security threats caused by conflicts or fragile states. Yet spiralling inequality and climate change, among many other factors, threaten to create a more dangerous, unequal world. As the continuing tragedy in Syria shows, the world's old and new powers have not yet found a way to unite to end conflicts. The age of interventions, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, is over. But a new rule-based world in which China, India, and others unite with Western powers to protect civilians and end conflicts has not yet come into being. Whoever wins the 2015 UK general election, the greatest test for UK foreign policy will be how much it can do to help build that world.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, Climate Change, Poverty, Insurgency, and Fragile/Failed State
Political Geography:
Britain, China, Iraq, United Kingdom, Europe, India, and Syria
Inequality is a growing problem in the UK. Whilst austerity measures in Britain continue to hit the poorest families hardest, a wealthy elite have seen their incomes spiral upwards, exacerbating income inequality which has grown under successive governments over the last quarter of a century.
At least one in three women worldwide will experience some form of violence during their lifetime, often perpetrated by an intimate partner. Violence against women and girls is a fundamental human rights issue and a central challenge to development, democracy and peace.
Topic:
Political Violence, Civil Society, Democratization, Development, Gender Issues, and Human Rights
All people have a fundamental right to life and security. Oxfam works to ensure this right is respected, not only by responding to humanitarian emergencies, but by addressing the violent conflict which, as its Humanitarian Strategy 2020 recognises, is one of the key drivers of poverty. That is why conflict transformation has become one of the 'crosscutting issues' running through Oxfam's programmes and tackling some of the key driving factors that fuel direct, cultural and structural violence.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Political Violence, Civil Society, Humanitarian Aid, and Power Politics
Brazil has achieved promising results in the fight against hunger and poverty. This paper describes the path toward building a new governance framework for the provision of public policies that initiated a virtuous cycle for the progressive elimination of hunger and poverty. However, it is important to emphasize that the country continues to be characterized by dynamics that generate inequalities and threaten social and environmental justice.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, Poverty, Food, and Governance
The most powerful storm ever to hit the Philippines, Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Typhoon Yolanda) has affected about 16 million people. Four million people have been displaced; the majority of them are fisherfolk, and small-scale farmers and farm workers.
Topic:
Agriculture, Humanitarian Aid, and Natural Disasters
Fishing communities, many of whom live in poverty, have been hit hard by Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Typhoon Yolanda). The UN estimates that 30,000 boats have been damaged or destroyed and nearly three-quarters of fishing communities have been severely affected, losing crucial equipment such as boats, nets, and cages.
Topic:
Agriculture, Humanitarian Aid, Natural Disasters, and Food