FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS (FAO)

The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2023. Urbanization, agrifood systems transformation and healthy diets across the rural–urban continuum. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2023; 316 p. ISBN 978-92-5-137226-5. This report provides an update on global progress towards the targets of ending hunger (SDG Target 2.1) and all forms of malnutrition (SDG Target 2.2) and estimates on the number of people who are unable to afford a healthy diet. Since its 2017 edition, this report has repeatedly highlighted that the intensification and interaction of conflict, climate extremes and economic slowdowns and downturns, combined with highly unaffordable nutritious foods and growing inequality, are pushing us off track to meet the SDG 2 targets. However, other important megatrends must also be factored into the analysis to fully understand the challenges and opportunities for meeting the SDG 2 targets. One such megatrend, and the focus of this year’s report, is urbanization. New evidence shows that food purchases in some countries are no longer high only among urban households but also among rural households. Consumption of highly processed foods is also increasing in peri-urban and rural areas of some countries. These changes are affecting people’s food security and nutrition in ways that differ depending on where they live across the rural–urban continuum. The report provides recommendations on the policies, investments and actions needed to address the challenges of agrifood systems transformation under urbanization and to enable opportunities for ensuring access to affordable healthy diets for everyone.

Food Outlook – Biannual report on global food markets. June 2023. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2023; 160 p. ISBN 978-92-5-137230-2. Issued twice a year, the June issue of the Food Outlook offers market summaries of FAO’s reviews of market supply and demand trends for the world’s major foodstuffs, namely cereals, oil crops, sugar, meat, dairy and fish. It also looks at trends in food import bills, Ocean freight rates, international food prices and futures markets. The Markets and Trade Division of FAO, as part of the Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS), produces and publishes the Food Outlook to enhance transparency in global food markets.

The impact of disasters on agriculture and food security 2023 – Avoiding and reducing losses through investment in resilience. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2023; 168 p. ISBN 978-92-5-138194-6. This FAO flagship report provides a timely and comprehensive overview of how disasters are affecting agriculture and food security around the world. Built on previous work of the FAO on this topic, the report estimates losses caused by disasters on agricultural production over the past three decades and delves into the diverse threats and impacts affecting the crops, livestock, forestry, and fisheries and aquaculture subsectors. It analyses the complex interplay of underlying risks, such as climate change, pandemics, epidemics and armed conflicts, and how they drive disaster risk in agriculture and agrifood systems at large. This report provides also examples of actions and strategies for investing in resilience and proactively addressing risks in agriculture. It demonstrates ways to mainstream disaster risk into agricultural practices and policies and calls for a deeper understanding of the context in which these solutions are implemented.

INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE COUNCIL (ISC)

Flipping the science model: a roadmap to science missions for sustainability. Paris: International Science Council 2023; 16 p. Both natural and social sciences have made significant contributions to the understanding of the challenges and issues affecting our societies and planet. Notwithstanding that, it is now clear that new approaches are urgently needed if science is to be effectively used to make rapid progress. Following the release of the report Unleashing Science, coordinated by the ISC, the Council established the Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability in 2021 to explore how these recommendations might be condensed to practice. This report summarizes the conclusions reached after extensive consultation with experts, detailed in the accompanying report “A model for implementing mission science for sustainability”. As part of the proposed shift in how to tackle the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs with greater expediency, the ISC Global Commission is calling for science in support of progress towards the SDGs to be undertaken and supported differently. By better integrating science with other perspectives, it is possible to achieve what the 2030 Agenda set out to do: creating the conditions for a fairer and more sustainable world, while living within planetary boundaries. According to the report, it will be required to supplement and rebalance the current scientific model, by incentivizing collaboration and outcomes between scientists, and of scientists, with other stakeholders, especially civil society, on large-scale sustainability challenges. Furthermore, the current model should shift from intense competition and fragmented science, both in terms of disciplines and funding, to building collaborative science communities.

A model for implementing mission science for sustainability. Paris: International Science Council 2023; 36 p. This report offers a model proposed by the Technical Advisory Group (TAG), established to assist with the ISC Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability’s work. The strategy proposed by the TAG flips the more traditional science model, allowing the agenda and priorities to be determined by regional communities and stakeholder needs, and engaging science in service to society in which science communities collaboratively design, produce, integrate, implement and evaluate potential pathways to achieve sustainability outcomes. It also aims to break down silos and radically increase regional capacity to understand and address nexus issues. To achieve the above-mentioned goals, the TAG proposes the establishment of a globally funded and empowered network of regional Sustainability Hubs. Each Hub will serve as a boundary-spanning platform for mobilization, coordination and alignment of diverse relevant actors and existing initiatives to address regionally identified complex nexus sustainability challenges.

UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMME (UNEP)

One Health Joint Action Plan of Action (2022-2026): working together for the health of humans, animals, plants and the environment. Geneva: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme, World Organisation for Animal Health and the World Health Organization 2022; 86 p. The One Health Joint Plan of Action (2022–2026) (OH JPA) has been developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE), and the World Health Organization (WHO) to respond to international requests to prevent future pandemics and to promote health sustainably through the One Health approach. The scope of the OH JPA is guided by the imperative for an inclusive One Health approach to addressing the health threats of humans, animals and plants in an integrated manner, while promoting environment and biodiversity protection and acknowledging the broader systems benefits of cross-sectoral collaboration to achieve collective outcomes. Specifically, the OH JPA addresses the risks and consequences of emerging zoonotic diseases with epidemic and pandemic potential, endemic infectious diseases of zoonotic and vector-borne origin, food and water safety hazards, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the health of the environment.

Strategic framework for collaboration on antimicrobial resistance – together for One Health. Geneva: World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Organization for Animal Health 2022; 22 p. This Strategic Framework presents the background and context for the collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO) (“the Tripartite”) with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), describes the comparative advantage and catalytic role of the four organizations in the One Health response to AMR in support of efforts by their Members, civil society, the private sector and other stakeholders, and proposes a theory of change including the goals, objectives, desired impact at country level, intermediate outcomes and related Tripartite and UNEP functions.

EUROPEAN FOOD SAFETY AUTHORITY (EFSA)

EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), Gkrintzali G, Georgiev G, Garcia Matas R, Maggiore A, Merten C, Rortais A, Giarnecchia R, Robinson T and Bottex B. Technical report on EFSA’s activities on emerging risks in 2021. EFSA supporting publication 2023; 20(9): EN-8233, 41 pp. The current technical report summarises the activities of all groups involved in the emerging risk identification (ERI) procedure and the issues identified by EFSA in the course of 2021. It also describes the methodologies being developed and the collaborative activities. In total, 18 potential emerging issues were discussed in 2021 and eight were concluded to be emerging risks. The potential issues were classified according to the hazard and/or driver identified. In more than half of the issues discussed in 2021, a change in consumer trends was identified as a driver. A better understanding of these trends is particularly relevant for EFSA to improve preparedness.

EFSA (European Food Safety Authority). Targeted risk assessment for maximum residue levels for nicotine in spices. EFSA Journal 2023;21(10):1-12. EFSA received a mandate from the European Commission to perform a targeted risk assessment of maximum residue levels (MRLs) for nicotine in spices. EFSA performed the acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) dietary risk assessment considering the nicotine exposure via residues in spices at the level equal to the temporary maximum residue level (tMRL) of 0.3 mg/kg as proposed by the European Commission based on the new monitoring data provided. Based on the risk assessment results, EFSA concluded that the tMRL for the group of spices of 0.3 mg/kg is unlikely to pose a risk to consumer health.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)

WHO Guidelines for malaria. 16 October 2023. Geneva: World Health Organization 2023; 451 p. This WHO Guidelines for malaria supersedes two previous WHO publications: the Guidelines for the treatment of malaria, third edition and the Guidelines for malaria vector control. Recommendations on malaria will continue to be reviewed and, where appropriate, updated based on the latest available evidence. With each update, a new PDF version of the consolidated guidelines will be available for download on the WHO website.

Safety evaluation of certain food additives: prepared by the ninety-fifth meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). Geneva: World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2023 (WHO Food Additives Series, No. 86); 192 p. ISBN (WHO) 978-92-4-006843-8 (electronic version) ISBN (WHO) 978-92-4-006844-5 (print version) ISBN (FAO) 978-92-5-137758-1. The monographs contained in this volume were prepared at the Ninety-fifth meeting of the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)/World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), which met virtually on 6-17 and 22 June 2022. These monographs summarize the data on specific food additives reviewed by the Committee and are based on evaluations of original studies and the dossiers provided by the sponsor(s) of the compound, of the relevant published scientific literature and of data submitted by Codex members.

WHO operational handbook on tuberculosis. Module 1: prevention - infection prevention and control. Geneva: World Health Organization 2023; 116 p. ISBN 978-92-4-007815-4 (electronic version) ISBN 978-92-4-007816-1 (print version). The WHO operational handbook on tuberculosis. Module 1: prevention – infection prevention and control provides practical advice on how to implement the WHO recommendations on tuberculosis (TB) infection prevention and control, within the clinical and programmatic management of TB, using a public health approach. It is part of a modular series of practical guides meant for the implementers of various aspects of the programmatic management TB. The handbook emphasizes the importance of building integrated, well-coordinated, multisectoral actions across all levels of health care and other settings where there is a high risk of tuberculosis transmission. It shares best practices and experiences and provides checklists and job aids to support the implementation and monitoring of actions to cut transmissions, and promotes an implementation hierarchy of interventions across all settings as an integrated package. The target audience for the handbook includes policy-makers at national and subnational level; programme managers for TB, HIV and noncommunicable disease programmes; managers and clinicians at inpatient and outpatient health care facilities; managers at various congregate settings; occupational health officials; engineers; medical practitioners; frontline health care workers; and other key stakeholders in the public and private sectors.