Vital contribution of forests to food security and nutrition

The crops, animals and trees found in forests can play a crucial role in improving food security and nutrition around the world, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which is hosting a gathering on the issue in Rome next week.

Forests cover nearly a third of the globe and provide an invaluable variety of social, economic and environmental benefits. Around 1.6 billion people – including more than 2,000 indigenous cultures – depend on forests for their livelihood.

Forests are also the source of three-fourths of freshwater, help to regulate the impact of storms and floods and store carbon from the atmosphere. Also, more than three billion people depend on forests for wood for cooking and heating.

The International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition, to be held at FAO headquarters from 13 to 15 May, will bring together policy-makers, scientists, the private sector, UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, and community and farmers' groups, as well as indigenous representatives to raise awareness and understanding about the many ways forests contribute to food security, especially in developing countries.

“If you talk to the general public about forests, they think about building houses and furniture and maybe recreation. But they don't primarily think about food,” said Eva Muller, Director of FAO's Forest Economics, Policy and Products Division.

“So one of the main reasons for organizing this conference is to draw attention to the contribution that forests can actually provide to food security and nutrition,” she stated in an interview with the UN News Centre ahead of the Rome meeting.

Ms. Muller pointed out that forests contribute to food security in a variety of ways. They are a source of 'forest foods', which include things such as fruits, leaves, seeds and mushrooms, as well as wild animals and insects.

“These usually are not the main staple of people's diets but they are a very important supplement to diets because they are very nutritious and add minerals and vitamins. Also, the insects and wild animals provide the main source of protein for many people who live in and around forests.”

Forests and trees also provide income and in many rural areas, they are the basis of small businesses, Ms. Muller noted. Very often, women collect products from the forests – mainly non-wood products – and sell them in the markets to generate crucial additional income which they use to provide food for their families, pay school fees and clothe their children.

“But forests also contribute in a more indirect ways to food security and nutrition. And that is through the environmental services they provide,” she stated. Forests help mitigate climate change by storing carbon, regulate water flows, and sometimes provide protection against the effects of storms. Forests are also home to bees which are pollinators for agricultural crops, she added.

The first day of the conference will feature the launch of the book Edible Insects: future prospects for feed and food security, which address the multi-faceted role that insects can play in nutrition and supporting livelihoods in both developing and developed countries.

Insects, Ms. Muller pointed out, are extremely nutritious. “They're rich in protein, they're rich in fat, and they're also rich in vitamins and minerals.” While edible insects may not be all the rage right now, FAO believes there is growing interest in them and that they can help address the food security needs of a growing global population.

“If we think about edible insects, there's a huge potential that has essentially not been tapped yet because currently, two billion people in the world eat insects but most of these are just collected and there's very little experience in insect farming, for example, which is something that could be explored in view of a growing population.”

The agency has been working on edible insects for a number of years and has established a database of edible insects that are reported to be used in various countries. It decided that the time was right to compile all of the information into one major publication.

Tetanus eliminated in over 30 countries at high risk

The United Nations and its partners today announced that tetanus – one of the most deadly diseases a mother and her newborn can face – has been eliminated in more than 30 countries with previously had high rates of the illness.

The broad based Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination Initiative, in which various United Nations agencies participate, said that since 1999, over 118 million women of child-bearing age have been vaccinated against tetanus in 52 countries.

Many of these women received their tetanus vaccine as part of a campaign which included other life- saving interventions for children – such as immunization against measles, Vitamin A supplements, de-worming tablets and information on umbilical cord care.

Tetanus kills one newborn baby every nine minutes and almost all of these babies are born in poor families living in the most disadvantaged areas and communities. The disease is transmitted when children are born in unhygienic conditions, and non-sterile materials are used to cut the umbilical cord, or are applied to the umbilical bump. At that point, the mother’s life is also in danger.

Tetanus is easily preventable with a vaccine administered to the mother. With at least three protective doses that cost about $2, the mother and her future newborns are protected for five years.

In a news release, the Initiative said that despite the progress half the 59 priority countries, some 28 other have still not reached the elimination goal. The main challenges to eliminate the disease are a lack of access to communities because of insecurity, cultural barriers, competing priorities, and inadequate funding.

The countries that have eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus are: Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, China, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Eritrea, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Iraq, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Timor Leste, Turkey, Togo, Uganda, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Gap Between Poor And Rich Countries

The health gap between poor and rich countries has narrowed significantly over the past two decades according to a United Nations report released today, which stresses that in spite of this progress, challenges still remain to achieve the health targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“Intensive efforts to achieve the MDGs have clearly improved health for people all over the world,” said the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Margaret Chan, but with less than 1000 days to go to reach the deadline for achieving the Goals, “it is timely to ask if these efforts have made a difference in reducing the unacceptable inequities between the richest and poorest countries.”

Agreed by world leaders at a UN summit in 2000, the eight MDGs set specific targets on poverty alleviation, education, gender equality, child and maternal health, environmental stability, HIV/AIDS reduction, and the creation of a Global Partnership for Development – all by a deadline of 2015.

WHO’s World Health Statistics 2013 report, which compares progress made by countries with the best health status and those with least-favourable health status over the past two decades, shows that considerable progress has been made in the areas of reducing child and maternal deaths, improving nutrition, and reducing deaths and illness from HIV infections, tuberculosis and malaria.

The gap in child mortality fell, from 171 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 107 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2011. Countries that had some of the world’s highest child mortality rates in 1990 – including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Laos, Madagascar, Nepal, Rwanda, Senegal and Timor-Leste – have improved child survival to such an extent that they no longer belong to that group.

However, despite 27 countries having already reached the MDG target, the current rates of progress will not be sufficient to reach the global target of a two-thirds reduction in 1990 levels of child mortality by 2015, the report says.

Global statistics on the number of women dying in childbirth also improved, but WHO earned that the global decline rate in maternal deaths – currently at 3 per cent – needs to double to meet the goal of reducing maternal deaths by three-quarters.

“Our statistics show that overall the gaps are closing between the most-advantaged and least-advantaged countries of the world,” said Ties Boerma, Director of the Department of Health Statistics and Information Systems at WHO. “However, the situation is far from satisfactory as progress is uneven and large gaps persist between and within countries.”

The report noted several key areas to focus on before the MDG deadline including reducing tuberculosis in the countries with the highest rates, addressing increasing rates of diabetes, and ensuring low and middle-income countries have access to affordable medicines.

The report contains data from 194 countries on a range of mortality, disease and health system indicators including life expectancy, illnesses and deaths from key diseases, health services and treatments, financial investment in health, as well as risk factors and behaviours that affect health.

Key role of private sector to boost maternal health

Ban Ki-moon today highlighted the role that the private sector can play in contributing to improve maternal health services across the world through the United Nations Every Woman Every Child initiative.

“We want to connect the private sector’s greatest strengths with the public sector’s greatest challenges,” Mr. Ban said at the Every Woman Every Child Taking Action Summit in New York.

The Every Woman Every Child effort, launched in 2010, aims to save the lives of 16 million women and children by 2015 by mobilizing governments, multilaterals, the private sector and civil society to address the major health challenges facing women and children around the world.

To date, Every Woman Every Child has brought together 260 partners and made ambitious commitments to advance its goal, and billions of dollars in new funding for women’s and children’s health have been mobilized and $10 billion has already been delivered.

“Philanthropy can play a particularly important role as a catalyst for under-resourced and often neglected areas of women’s and children’s health that can be quickly made available for larger public and private flows,” Mr. Ban said.

“Now is the moment for old and new partners to do more – because we are in a race against time,” he added, referring to the approaching 2015 deadline to achieve the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

When ‘Right to Sanitation’ becomes ‘Right to Life’

By Suman Bhanoo, PRIA

We all are aware of the recent rape in Delhi where a young girl of a basti was subjected to major atrocities in the unguarded public toilet near her basti. This is by no means a stand-alone case and most of the urban poor – especially women and girls have to deal with various issues (health, security and safety, loss of dignity to name few) either due to lack of facilities or ill-equipped services in their slums bastis.

According to United Nations Human Rights, it is estimated that 2.6 billion people live without proper sanitation. Over 1.1 billion people have no sanitation facilities. On the other hand, WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) estimates that 80 percent of the world’s urban population has access to adequate sanitation, compared to only 39 percent of the rural population. However it is a known fact that the health impact of lack of access to sanitation is far worse in urban areas than in rural areas, due to higher density of population.

 Slums of Bihar, where PRIA is initiating activities for Strengthening Civil Society Voices on Urban Poverty, are no exception to the above situation. Besides the usual problems of slums like potable water, sewerage facility, land rights, street light, BPL card and voter card, Ketari slum of Patna is facing huge problem related to sanitation facilities.  According to the slum dwellers, many people prefer plastic bags, sewerage lines, road sides, railway tracks, nearby forest areas, behind bushes, field, streets or other places for defecation that do not provide adequate privacy, safety, dignity and hygiene.  And above all these places are not secure for girls and women. Lack of toilets affects women and girls in particular; it makes them vulnerable to rape and other forms of gender-based violence. Women and girls face threats of sexual assault when they have to walk long distances to sanitation facilities, especially at night.

 

Absence of household toilets not only generate element of myriad fears but also pollutes environment and water sources. It is known that world over, millions of children are left malnourished, physically stunted and mentally disabled by excreta-related diseases. To combat   with these issues, residents of slums have formed temporary toilets near to their respective households. Now, after prolonged struggle and wait, in coming month, the slum residents going to get “six public toilets” in their slums. But main agenda is maintenance of “public toilets”. As the adjoining slum “Adalatganj Slum” is facing same issues related to maintenance. In adjacent slum toilet is in worse condition and to avail its services each time residents have to pay 3Rs/. It is a huge amount for whole family. So either they are forced to use ill maintained toilets or they have to defecate in open. Ms. Arzoo Devi from Adalatganj stated every day brings the same problem. For middle class society concept of defecation doesn’t deserve any consideration but for us this simple act of defecation takes thoughtful planning. Being a woman it is matter of dignity, health and safety.

                In June 2011, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the “Sustainable Sanitation: Five-Year Drive to 2015” a push to speed up progress on the Millennium Development Goals of improving global sanitation by 2015 and to ensure sanitation for all. Let see how far it goes….

Source: http://terraurban.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/when-right-to-sanitation-becomes-right-to-life/

Spearheading Hand Wash & Menstrual Hygiene Practices in India

HEEALS, a non-profit organization has collaborated with various schools to spread awareness about the importance of hand wash and menstrual hygiene among children of variable ages. It’s often seen that a simple practice like washing hands is not given enough importance by children as well as adults. But, it is a medically proven fact that proper hand washing is one of the best ways to  avoid getting sick. Similarly, menstrual hygiene is also an  ignored practice among adolescent girls because of the taboo attached to it.

                                                                             Sanitary Pad Distribution in Schools

HEEALS spearheaded their campaign “Hand Wash and Menstrual Hygiene” using various innovative and interesting activities to explain the importance of hygiene practices. Till now, they have targeted six schools and 1050 students in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh and Gurgaon, Haryana, India between the age group 10-14 years studying in classes 5^th – 9^th.

For explaining the importance of hand wash and menstrual hygiene, the Heeals has designed four games for the children. These games are called as the “wash games”. They organized workshops in the schools where all the targeted children took part in these games. They also saw cartoon films to understand why they need to keep their hand clean. The multimedia techniques and interactive games were specially designed to help children easily memorise the information.

To break the taboo related to menstrual hygiene, the Heeals members counselled around 210 girl students. They spoke to these girls and resolved their queries and apprehensions related to menstruation making them aware about the importance of menstrual hygiene. HEEALS also distributed sanitary napkins amongst the girl students.

HEEALS Managing Director Gaurav Kashyap Present at the venue emphasised that “Awareness and more awareness is the only Key to make people realize regarding the Menstrual Hygiene . A menstrual taboo is a social taboo by ending this we can make a gender equal society”.