Showing 1 - 10 of 20
How to help the world's poor most effectively
News, Bjorn Lomborg, Published on 22/12/2025
» As 2025 draws to a close, it's natural to turn our thoughts to the good we can do in the coming year -- not just for our families and communities, but for the world at large. The holidays are a moment not just for personal resolutions but for asking a bigger question: how can we help the world's poor as effectively as possible?
Time for mission-oriented approach to school meals
News, Mariana Mazzucato, Published on 13/10/2025
» The global food system is failing on multiple fronts. With more than 2.6 billion people unable to afford a healthy diet, over 500 million are expected to be chronically undernourished by 2030. Worse, at a time when meeting future demand requires a 50% increase in food production, food-system productivity is actually declining, owing partly to rising climate risks. Agrifood industries are not only driving biodiversity loss, land degradation, and a global water crisis, but also generating almost one-third of global greenhouse-gas emissions.
Taking a journey into the unknown
Roger Crutchley, Published on 13/07/2025
» According to newspaper reports Bulgaria will next year become the 21st country to adopt the euro. Admittedly it's hardly earth-shattering news and is possibly the first time Bulgaria has ever been mentioned in PostScript, let alone its currency, the "lev". But it reinforces my feeling that the European Union and the euro is partly responsible for taking the fun and romance out of travel.
Adapting crops for the future
News, Agnes Kalibata & Cary Fowler, Published on 04/10/2024
» Africa's food systems are facing myriad challenges, from climate shocks and low productivity to supply-chain disruptions and soil degradation. In 2022, one in five Africans was undernourished, even though the continent's cultivated land could more than meet its food needs. But that would require effective management and, perhaps most importantly, planting adaptive crops such as millet, sorghum, teff, and fonio.
End wars, restore Olympic peace
Oped, Dmitry Muratov, Maria Ressa & Jody Williams, Published on 18/07/2024
» There are at least 55 ongoing wars around the world. Politicians have consistently failed to end the armed conflicts that are ravaging their societies, and the dangers have been multiplied by the fact that local wars no longer remain local.
Asia-Pacific's loss of biodiversity
Oped, Jong-Jin Kim, Published on 22/05/2024
» In recent months, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and others have pointed to an increase in food insecurity and "hunger hotspots" in various parts of Asia and the Pacific. While conflicts and climate crises can carry some of the blame, we must acknowledge that the slow but steady erosion of our region's biodiversity is an equal or even greater threat to our future food security.
Time to be the agents of change
News, Qu Dongyu, Published on 12/02/2024
» We all know that we live in a changing world. In the vast area of Asia and the Pacific that change is most evident. Over the past 20 years, the economies of many nations in the region have been moving out of the category of "least developed" and graduating into a "middle income" status. However, the positive changes that help to make our lives better, healthier, and more prosperous, are not happening at the same time equally across all countries, or even equitably within them.
World needs rights-based system
Oped, Oyinlola Oyebode,Yureshya Perera,Tlaleng Mofokeng & Sharifah Sekalala, Published on 14/11/2023
» With the world's human population expected to reach a staggering ten billion in the next century, the question of how to achieve food security looms large. The current food system is certainly not up to the task: already, it is failing to ensure that the global population is nourished and contributing to environmental degradation. Radical reform is long overdue.
Lesson in fairness
Postbag, Published on 06/09/2023
» Re: "Cabbie lauded on violin's return", (BP, Sept 1).
Financing childhood growth
News, Joel E Cohen & John E Rogers, Published on 18/07/2023
» In 2020, chronic undernutrition stunted the growth of nearly a quarter of the world's children under five years old. Being too short for one's age, as a result of chronic undernutrition, can cause irreversible physical and cognitive damage and increases the risk of dying from common infections.