Population

Unrelenting drought in southern Madagascar is forcing hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of famine, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports.  At least 1.35 million people need emergency food and nutrition assistance.  Acute malnutrition in children under 5 has almost doubled over the last four months.

Facing challenging virtual negotiations and a history of gridlock, the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Population and Development marked a major achievement today as it adopted its first consensus outcome document in five years, at the conclusion of its fifty-fourth session, with delegates praising the timely focus on links between food security, nutrition, sustainable development and the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.

Population experts from the United Nations and Governments around the globe explored populating ageing and other emerging demographic trends, and weighed innovative ways to collect and use data, as the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Population and Development continued its annual session today.

Public health researchers examined links between the planet’s rapidly evolving food systems, emerging social trends and access to healthy, nutritious human diets, as the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Population and Development continued into the third day of its annual session.

United Nations staff report that, despite recent improvements in humanitarian access, the situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray remains alarming, with conflict in some areas restricting humanitarian movement and response.  Insecurity in Tigray’s east zone last week reportedly impacted the movement of more than 20 relief trucks.

Experts today outlined innovative approaches to transform global food systems — assuring that an end to hunger can be within reach — as the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Population and Development opened the second day of its annual session.

As COVID-19 continues to expose links between gender inequality, food insecurity and poor access to health care and reproductive rights, the global community has an obligation to build back better, fairer and more sustainably for the estimated 10 billion people who will inhabit the planet by 2050, the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Population and Development heard today, as members opened their fifty-fourth session.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohamed’s opening remarks at the fifty-fourth session of the Commission on Population and Development, held today:

Nearly half of women in 57 developing countries are denied the right to decide whether to have sex with their partners, use contraception or seek health care, according to the United Nations Population Fund’s 2021 flagship “State of World Population” report, released today.

The United Nations Human Rights Office in South-East Asia reports that 500 peaceful protesters have been killed and 2,600 others detained by security forces in Myanmar since 1 February.  It is asking States in the region to protect people fleeing violence and ensure that refugees and migrants are not forcibly returned.