Food

In Sri Lanka, the United Nations continues to support the Government, and people of the country respond to the economic crisis there. The Organization has reached more than 1 million women, children and men with humanitarian aid across all 25 districts of the country.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) today released a report which shows that pay transparency measures can help expose pay differences between men and women and identify underlying causes. According to ILO, on average, women, are paid about 20 per cent less than men, globally.

Dire food insecurity in many conflict-affected countries requires both urgent action from the Security Council to prevent and end the violence and increased humanitarian funding from the international community in order to avert catastrophic famine for millions of people, senior United Nations officials told the 15-member organ today.

In Uganda, the United Nations is supporting authorities to tackle the impacts of climate change and restore degraded forest lands. In the north-eastern region of Karamoja, which is affected by climate change-induced drought and food insecurity, the Organization has helped rehabilitate 122 hectares of land.

On Saturday, accompanied by Pakistan’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, the Secretary-General travelled to Balochistan, Larkana and Sukkur, in Sindh Province, and met with a group of women and men who abandoned everything to help their neighbours reach safety as their houses flooded. He said he had never seen climate carnage on this scale.

The World Food Programme’s first humanitarian shipment of grain from Ukraine, delivered under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, has arrived in Ethiopia and will be distributed in the coming weeks. The shipment will support one month of assistance to over 1.5 million people who have been displaced by drought and conflict.

Today is the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. This year’s theme is “The Air We Share” and focuses on the transboundary nature of air pollution, stressing the need for collective accountability and action.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today said that world food commodity prices dipped for a fifth month in a row. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 138 points in August, down 1.9 per cent from July although remaining 7.9 per cent above its value a year before.

In Thailand, the United Nations is helping authorities improve green technologies. The Organization is partnering with nearly 300 companies to cut food waste by up to 10 per cent.

In Ukraine, a convoy, organized by the United Nations and its partners, recently reached Toretsk in eastern Donetsk Oblast on 26 August. The convoy delivered 56 tons of food and other items for 2,000 people living close to the front line and who are under shelling.