What are sustainable diets?

Sustainable diets are financially affordable and have only a limited impact on the climate. At the same time, they ought to provide the body adequately with nutrients and align with people’s cultural and social habits.

The approach

First, the researchers assessed the diets of the study participants. Through a mathematical approach, they constructed dietary patterns from the data that fulfil the criteria of a sustainable diet. Next, they investigated to what extent the diet of the study participants differed from these optimum dietary patterns. This allowed an estimate of how sustainable their diet actually was. Finally, the researchers investigated whether the sustainability of the diet was associated with the development of obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

Main results

Overall, among the 2,183 participants surveyed, diets were not very sustainable. Variation in diets across the study population was small. The study shows that the diets of adults in Ghana are more sustainable than those of Ghanaian migrants in Europe. It also demonstrates that the diets of older people and people with a lower educational level are more sustainable as their calorie intake is lower.

Surprisingly, there was hardly any association between a more sustainable diet and obesity, type 2 diabetes or hypertension. The authors of the study suspect that the lack of association is attributable to the overall low level of sustainability and the low variation in the diet.

Challenges

Follow-up surveys of the participants in the study were performed during the corona pandemic. Carrying them out was particularly problematic in Ghana since people living there often have no fixed address and getting in touch with them was therefore difficult. Evaluating the results posed a further challenge, for men and women require different amounts of nutrients. Also, the usual portion sizes in Ghana differ from those in Europe, for which reason calculations had to be adjusted to sexes, the sizes of the respective portions and the locations.

Recommendations

The results show that sustainable diets in sub-Saharan Africa should consist primarily of plant-based foods. Above all, red meat and fish products could be replaced more frequently with plant foods such as pulses and whole-grain products. A little more fish and seafood could also be part of the diet. Overall, people should eat fewer foods that contain a large number of calories but comparatively few nutrients.

In the study the researchers discussed prototypes of sustainable diets, which were developed through the mathematical approach referred to above, with adults in Ghana and with Ghanaian migrants in Germany. This included questions about feasibility in everyday life, acceptability by people and cultural appropriateness. These results are to help discover whether and how these prototypes of sustainable diets can be used in future studies and health programmes.

(University of Bonn/wi)

Reference:

Clara Bergmann, Gabriel Kallah-Dagadu, Eva van der Linden, Karlijn A.C. Meeks, Kerstin Klipstein-Grobusch, Mary Nicolaou, Peter Henneman, Silver Bahendeka, Erik Beune, Charles Agyemang, Ina Danquah (2026): Sustainable diets and cardiometabolic conditions among Ghanaian adults under transition: Findings from the RODAM-Pros Cohort Study, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2026.101471 

Further reading:

Rural 21 Dossier on "Food security and nutrition"

Using high-resolution global datasets on soils, land degradation and agricultural production, the researchers found that every ten per cent increase in land degradation is associated with an approximately two per cent increase in crop yield gaps, i.e. the difference between the yields farmers currently achieve and what is realistically attainable under local conditions.

20 million tonnes of crop production lost

According to the researchers, the consequences are substantial. Globally, land degradation is associated with annual losses of approximately 20 million tonnes of crop production, equivalent to 52 trillion food calories – enough to feed roughly 71 million people – and around 4 billion US dollars in agricultural revenues.

Unlike previous studies based primarily on local field experiments or simulation models, the research provides the first global empirical evidence demonstrating the relationship between long-term land degradation and agricultural productivity across diverse farming systems.

The researchers involved in the study started by asking themselves how high yields could be in practice without any degradation. To this end, they first divided all the arable land on the planet into ten-by-ten-kilometre squares. “We then looked for squares with similar prevailing conditions, i.e. comparable precipitation levels and temperatures, and compared the yields in these areas,” explains Dr Hadi Hadi, a postdoctoral researcher in the Land Economics Group at the University of Bonn, who carried out many of the analyses for the study.

Adjusting their figures to account for differences in the use of fertiliser, irrigation and other cultivation factors enabled the researchers to identify areas with particularly high yields. Many of these were also those that had sustained hardly any soil damage up to that point. “Thus, these areas give us a benchmark for what’s possible in soils that haven’t been degraded or influenced in any way,” the researchers say.

Machine learning uses gaps in yield to calculate degradation rate

For each 10 × 10 km parcel of land, therefore, the working groups involved were able to calculate a specific yield gap, which they then correlated with five different parameters connected with soil degradation: erosion, dehydration, compaction caused by the widespread use of heavy agricultural machinery, the loss of carbon dioxide in the soil and minimal vegetation cover.

With the aid of complex AI-powered evaluation methods, the researchers were able to use the yield gap that they had identified to calculate the degree of soil degradation in each parcel. “Taking an average of all the parcels gives us an approximate rule of thumb,” Hadi says. “A ten per cent increase in the degradation rate cuts the yield by an average of two per cent. Conversely, if we could reduce degradation by ten per cent all over the world, crop yields would grow by such an extent that we’d be able to feed over 70 million more people.”

Highly productive agricultural systems are also affected

In their study, the researchers also identified geographic hotspots where agricultural production is particularly sensitive to land degradation, including parts of India, China, the USA, and Central and South America. At the same time, the findings demonstrate that land degradation is not solely a challenge for developing countries, but also affects highly productive agricultural systems in industrialised nations. 

Countries most vulnerable to crop production losses from land degradation.
Source: TUHH/ GHI

The authors argue that future agricultural policies should integrate sustainable land management with efforts to increase food production. Investments in soil restoration, conservation agriculture and long-term soil monitoring can help improve food security while strengthening resilience to climate pressures.

(TUHH/University of Bonn/wi)

More information:

Hadi et. al. (2026): Land degradation is associated with larger crop yield gaps across global croplands; Nature Food; DOI: 10.1038/s43016-026-01382-5

Further reading:

Rural 21 no 4/2024: "Land Matters" 

Rural 21 no 2/2022: "Healthy soil – healthy people - healthy planet"

Germany is sending the wrong signal

Thieme criticised the strong decline in finance for humanitarian assistance and development cooperation world-wide – including in Germany. This was jeopardising achievements reached so far in eliminating hunger. The German government’s current draft Federal Budget for 2027 was a continuation of this year’s halving of spending on humanitarian aid, and at 30 to 40 per cent, the items “Crisis Management, Reconstruction, Infrastructure” as well as “Transformation of Agricultural and Food Systems” had suffered disproportionately severe cuts in the budget of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) – despite combating hunger and poverty being defined as priority areas in the BMZ budget. “With this, the German government is sending the wrong signal,” the Welthungerhilfe President criticised, noting that international cooperation was also an investment in peace, stability and our shared security.

Impactful approaches

The organisation shows how an optimum impact can be achieved with limited financing in its recent Impact Report. Here, WHH Secretary General Mathias Mogge referred to the programme “Nutrition Smart CommUNITY” as an example. It is being run with 829 village communities in Africa and Asia, and incorporates aspects of food, agriculture, health and hygiene being combined in a holistic approach to combating hunger; in this manner, together with the village communities, solutions are created which boost knowledge, promote self-initiative and have a long-term impact, improving, among other things, child health and raising families’ income, Mogge explained.

Providing impetus and mediation

The Welthungerhilfe Annual Report also highlights the importance of local knowledge, reliable partnerships and sustained investment in resilient food systems in developing lasting solutions to hunger. Mogge believes that the organisation’s mission is changing in this context, maintaining that “we are increasingly in demand as a provider of impetus and mediation to support people in shaping their own future”. That also meant embracing new approaches, for instance investments in innovations that strengthen sustainable food systems and expanding international partnerships with academia, the private sector, and policy-makers to scale up successful solutions more quickly. One example Mogge referred to was AgriBridge, an African-German policy network for sustainable agrifood systems which works out concrete recommendations for the German Federal Government to take action.

Digital marketplaces and social enterprises

Further innovative approaches to strengthening food systems include agricultural apps and digital marketplaces designed to help smallholder farmers improve productivity and gain better access to markets. Since 2017, the organisation has also been working with social enterprises that improve food security in rural areas, create jobs and develop financially viable services and business models. The Toothpick Company is an example of what has evolved from this. The company has developed a bio-herbicide to combat Striga, a weed which, alone in Africa, affects 40 million hectares of maize. “Hunger cannot be stopped by individual measures,” Mogge noted, summing up his organisation’s experience. “Programmes are most effective when agriculture, nutrition, water, education and economic development are closely integrated.”

(sri)

More information:

• Welthungerhilfe's Annual Report (in German)
• Welthungerhilfe’s Impact Report
• Facts & Figures on hunger at Welthungerhilfe website
• Global Report on Food Crises

Rural 21 Dossier on Food Systems

“This work underlines that the scale of this change is huge and the policy ambition has to be commensurate with the challenge,” says Matthew Gibson, former postdoctoral associate in the Food Systems and Global Change research group in the Cornell CALS Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment. “We have to think about a coordinated push involving governments, industry and consumers alike.”

Gibson, currently a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, led the study, which attempts to map what would happen if the world actually followed through on years of calls for healthy diets from more sustainable food systems. The researchers found that transforming the global food system guided by EAT-Lancet recommendations would not simply tweak agriculture at the margins. It would fundamentally remake it – shrinking the footprint of farming, slashing livestock production and redirecting what the world grows and eats.

People globally eat less meat and more fruits and vegetables these days

In the study’s modelled “transformation” scenario – based on dietary patterns similar to those recommended by the EAT-Lancet Commission – people eat far less red meat (e.g. beef, pork and lamb), and more fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts. That shift ripples backwards through the system. With fewer animals to feed, demand for crops like corn and soy declines. Vast stretches of grazing land become unnecessary. And the agricultural economy, long centred on livestock, begins to pivot.

According to the study, production of ruminant meat could fall by a third in 2050 compared to 2020, and the economic value of this production could decline by 70 per cent. This would be accompanied by around 400 million fewer ruminant animals for slaughter each year.  Cereals and sugar crops would also shrink in such a future.

In their place, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes would expand, both in acreage and importance. By mid-century, these foods could account for the majority of agricultural production value, a sharp departure from today’s system, where livestock still dominates.

Food systems today are responsible for roughly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, as well as major water use and fertiliser runoff, the study notes. Under the transformation scenario, agricultural emissions fall sharply – by about a third compared to current trajectories – driven largely by the decline in livestock, particularly methane-intensive cattle.

Water use and fertiliser application are also lower compared to business-as-usual projections, easing pressure on ecosystems already stretched to their limits. Land freed from agriculture could, in theory, return to forests or other natural systems, offering additional climate and biodiversity benefits.

The economic impact is very complex and imbalanced

And yet, the picture is not one of simple gain, according to the scientists. “There will be pain points and potential losses,” they note. “We have to find ways to compensate and incentivise farmers and ranchers to make these huge changes. If we want multifunctional food systems, we need multifunctional payments beyond those linked to agricultural production.”

Economically, the global value of agricultural production by 2050 would shrink by about one-quarter compared to a business-as-usual future, which equates to roughly the figure for 2020. For some regions and sectors, that contraction could be destabilising, while for others it could present opportunities.

Even within agriculture, the shifts are uneven, Gibson says. Jobs tied to livestock production would fall more sharply than those in crop farming, potentially reshaping rural labour markets. Trade patterns would shift as well, with some regions exporting less meat and importing more plant-based foods.

That imbalance helps explain why change has been slow. Governments continue to subsidise many of the very systems that drive poor health and environmental harm, the researchers maintain. Efforts like sugar taxes, food labelling and dietary guidelines, while important, operate at the margins of a much larger system shaped by entrenched interests, according to the paper.

Consumer behaviour adds another layer of complexity. The study assumes a relatively smooth shift towards healthier diets, but in reality, food choices are bound up with culture, affordability and habit. For many people, especially in lower-income countries, healthier diets remain out of reach. For others, giving up meat is less a question of cost than of identity.

Even so, the researchers argue that the scale of potential benefit makes the effort unavoidable.

“If we want to transform the food system for the better, to improve health, reduce waste and have more sustainable production, you have to make it happen,” Gibson emphasises. “Without bold and inclusive intervention, the food system may well transform, but in a way it does not serve people or the planet.” 

(Cornell University/PIK/wi)

Reference:

Matthew Gibson et al.: Food systems transformation would reshape global agriculture, Nature, July 2026. 

Further reading:

Rural 21 Dossier on "Food Systems"

Rural 21 Dossier on "Food security and nutrition"

Rural 21 issue 21: Changing times, changing diets

Rice production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is steadily increasing, fuelled by a rising demand for food, population growth, urbanisation and changing dietary preferences. Currently, rice self-sufficiency rates are low and do not meet domestic requirements, resulting in Africa importing about 45 per cent of its rice requirements. As a response to the growing demand, many SSA countries developed National Rice Development Strategies (NRDS) under the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD), aiming to double rice production. Across SSA, rice production has grown, driven largely by area expansion, often converting natural habitats, with most NRDSs targeting to double or triple irrigated rice production, positioning irrigation as a cornerstone for future productivity gains. For countries like Tanzania, that means expanding the irrigated rice production area to half a million hectares.  

Climate and public health trade-offs

While irrigated rice production systems are more profitable and higher yielding than rainfed systems, boosting food security, they also pose climate and public health trade-offs. Conventional irrigated rice production, characterised by transplanting and continuous flooding, is water-intensive and generates substantial emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas which contributes to global warming. In response, agronomic win-win solutions such as alternate wetting and drying (AWD), direct seeded rice (DSR) and rice-fish co-cultures maintain or enhance rice productivity while reducing input use, especially water and cutting methane emissions.

A rice field in Tanzania. Photo: Melanie Connor

Another often-overlooked challenge is that in SSA, irrigated rice systems create ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes, especially Anopheles gambiae, the primary malaria vector, and therefore increase malaria transmission. These aquatic environments can also provide suitable habitats for freshwater snails that transmit schistosomiasis, highlighting how rice systems can simultaneously influence multiple vector-borne diseases. Schistosomiasis is a devastating parasitic disease which is prevalent in rice fields and is transmitted by intermediate host snails. However, the occupational risk of schistosomiasis to people working in irrigated rice fields is not well established yet.

Malaria – one of the deadliest diseases in SSA

Despite decades of global investment, malaria remains one of the deadliest diseases in SSA, accounting for 95 per cent of global cases and 97 per cent of malaria-related deaths world-wide. Annually, malaria claims the lives of approximately 600,000 people, with children under five years accounting for 76 per cent of global malaria deaths. Most malaria control efforts focus on providing insecticide-treated nets, vaccine development, and medical treatment. However, far less investment has been directed towards managing mosquito breeding sites, despite clear evidence that African malaria vector species are exceptionally well-adapted to breeding in rice fields.

Climate change can amplify the threat to public health and malaria fight, with projected warmer climates and increased precipitation, often resulting in enhanced occurrence of flash floods, potentially promoting proliferation of malaria vector abundance. A recent review clearly shows that communities close to irrigated rice are exposed to greater malaria risk. Expansion of irrigated rice production, coupled with warmer temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, increasingly drives malaria and schistosomiasis transmission across many rice-growing regions in SSA.

Mosquito larvae. Photo: Melanie Connor

Cross-sectoral coordination needed

While development goals are clearly defined across different sectors, with, for example, African health ministers planning to eliminate malaria to improve public health, agricultural ministers aiming to improve food security by intensifying irrigated rice production and environmental ministers seeking the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the sectors mostly operate in isolation. Coordination across the different sectors to align these development goals remains weak. Whereas all three – food security, climate resilience and public health improvement– are highly desirable goals, the intensification of irrigated rice production often creates trade-offs that risk undermining progress in both health and climate outcomes. Governments in SSA have proposed expanding and intensifying irrigated rice to reduce costly rice imports.

However, realising these benefits requires collective action to eliminate climate and public health trade-offs, ensuring that productivity gains do not come at the expense of sustainability and community well-being. This, therefore, requires deliberately integrating agricultural and public health practices to control malaria and schistosomiasis without negating food security attainment and climate mitigation goals.

A plethora of different rice growing practices exist, especially to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions without profit loss for farmers through climate-smart nutrient and water management practices, in particular DSR, AWD and rice-fish co-cultures. These practices may influence mosquito vector and schistosomiasis-carrying snail abundance. Furthermore, rice-fish co-cultures have been shown to enhance rice productivity while reducing methane emissions (6) and potentially help control mosquito populations by consuming larvae.

Generally, mosquito and snail control is predominantly done through pesticide application and requires repeated application, posing further health risks. It is also costly, which questions its sustainability for farmers and the environment. This highlights an important research gap to explore alternative options to reduce vector abundance in rice fields that are sustainable, cost-effective, easy to apply and do not pose additional risks to farmers’ health or livelihoods. A full understanding of the relationship among options of rice management in African rice fields that simultaneously improve food security, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve public-health outcomes is yet to be addressed through cross-sectoral, multidisciplinary teams.

Collective action is required involving agronomists working in rice production systems, entomologists and ecologists with expertise in malaria-causing mosquitoes and schistosomiasis-carrying snails, epidemiologists and social scientists who will need to provide insights on options that generate co-benefits across climate, public health and food production.

This challenge highlights the value of adopting a One Health perspective recognising that human health outcomes are shaped by factors across human, animal and environmental domains. The approach needs to address vector breeding (mosquitoes and snails) at its environmental and systemic roots, complementing existing preventive tools. Embedding vector-borne disease reduction into the research and development agenda for rice production systems in SSA offers a practical pathway to deliver co-benefits for public health, climate resilience, and food security.

Melanie Connor is a senior social scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in  Nairobi, Kenya, specialised in behavioural and risk research. She holds a doctoral degree from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and has 20 years of experience in research.
Contact: M.Connor(at)cgiar.org

Pauline Chivenge is a senior scientist in Cropping Systems Agronomy/Climate Change and Country Representative at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Her work focuses on advancing sustainable and climate-smart innovations in rice farming systems. She earned her doctoral degree from the University of California, Davis and brings over 25 years of research experience in smallholder farming systems. 

References:

• van Oort, P. A. J., Saito, K., Tanaka, A., Amovin-Assagba, E., Van Bussel, L. G. J., van Wart, J., de Groot, H., van Ittersum, M. K., Cassman, K. G. & Wopereis, M. C. S. (2015). Assessment of rice self-sufficiency in 2025 in eight African countries. Global Food Security 5: 39–49.
• Seiler, W., Holzapfel-Pschorn, A., Conrad, R., Scharffe, D., 1983. Methane emission from rice paddies. Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry 1, 241-268.
• Sander, B.O., Wassmann, R., Siopongco, J.D., 2016. Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from rice production through water-saving techniques: potential, adoption and empirical evidence. Climate change and agricultural water management in developing countries. CABI Wallingford UK, pp. 193-207.
• Jiang, Y., Carrijo, D., Huang, S., Chen, J.I., Balaine, N., Zhang, W., van Groenigen, K.J., Linquist, B., 2019. Water management to mitigate the global warming potential of rice systems: A global meta-analysis. Field Crops Research 234, 47-54.
• Pathak, H., Sankhyan, S., Dubey, D.S., Bhatia, A., Jain, N., 2013. Dry direct-seeding of rice for mitigating greenhouse gas emission: field experimentation and simulation. Paddy and Water Environment 11, 593-601.
• Hussain, S., Peng, S., Fahad, S., Khaliq, A., Huang, J., Cui, K., Nie, L., 2015. Rice management interventions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions: a review. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 22, 3342-3360.
• Zhang, W., Xu, M., Lu, J., Ren, T., Cong, R., Lu, Z., Li, X., 2023. Integrated rice-aquatic animals culture systems promote the sustainable development of agriculture by improving soil fertility and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Field Crops Research 299, 108970.
• Sack, A., Selland, E., Bakhoum, S., Seck, M., Jouanard, N., Magblenou, L. D. & Rohr, J. R. (2025). Human Schistosoma exposure risk in rice fields and an exploration of fish species for snail and schistosomiasis biocontrol. PLOS Global Public Health 5(6): e0004726.
• World Health Organization, 2024. World malaria report 2024: addressing inequity in the global malaria response. Geneva: Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
• (Chandler, J. A., Highton, R. B., & Hill, M. N. (1975). Mosquitoes of the Kano Plain, Kenya. I. Results of indoor collections in irrigated and non-irrigated areas using human bait and light traps. Journal of medical entomology, 12(5), 504–510. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmedent/12.5.504
• Megersa DM, Luo X-S. Effects of Climate Change on Malaria Risk to Human Health: A Review. Atmosphere. 2025; 16(1):71. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos16010071).
• Chan, K., Tusting, L. S., Bottomley, C., Saito, K., Djouaka, R. & Lines, J. (2022). Malaria transmission and prevalence in rice-growing versus non-rice-growing villages in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Planetary Health 6(3): e257–e269.

Further reading:

Rural 21 issue 4/2020: One health

The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) invited experts and practitioners from around the world to the recent IFOAM Animal Husbandry Alliance Conference (IAHA), held in Frick, Switzerland, in late April, toaddress a central question: “Is organic animal husbandry a role model for the future of livestock production?” The discussions quickly revealed that the answer needs to be sought in a context-based manner, highlighting different starting points and priorities between the Global North and Global South. Attended by a diverse group of researchers, farmers and policy-makers, the conference served as a platform for dialogue, combining presentations from research and essays from the practitioners' side, while providing time for discussions between participants.

Different perspectives on challenges in organic animal husbandry

Presentations from the Global North predominantly focused on refining existing husbandry challenges within organic frameworks, addressing questions like “How many animals are 'enough'?" and exploring ways to tackle issues such as insufficient prices, challenges with male animals, and inadequate breeding strategies in European ruminant systems. In contrast, representatives from countries in the Global South discussed a more fundamental question: what should “organic livestock production” mean in their contexts? They highlighted barriers such as inadequate cold chains, insecure feed supplies, low productivity, limited availability of organic inputs and challenges in accessing organic markets arising from high certification costs, lack of government support and lack of defined regulations. For instance, while India has the highest number of certified organic farmers globally, certified organic livestock farming remains a niche, and in most African countries, certified organic animal farming stays extremely limited and is far less developed than organic crop production.

An analysis by Irenie Chakoma, a livestock consultant from Zimbabwe, of the goat value chain in her country highlighted challenges like high goat mortality, underdeveloped market infrastructure and low market prices, despite the critical role goats play for rural households. Felix Matheri from ICIPE, Kenya, talked about his research on manure-based compost production methods and their potential to close nutrient cycles while enhancing soil health. Matheri emphasised the importance of integrating livestock into organic farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa, where the availability and quality of organic inputs often still cause major problems.

Presentations by Arvind Sharma from the Department of Animal Husbandry of Himachal Pradesh, India, and University of Queensland, Australia and Ankaj Thakur from CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, India, both on transhumant pastoral communities in the Himalayas, discussed traditional low-input systems where animals are integral to the social fabric and contribute to the conservation of indigenous animal genetic resources. These production systems are largely aligned with organic principles, and organic certification could offer valuable market opportunities and a promising pathway for revitalising declining traditional practices. But there would also be barriers to organic conversion, such as the need for an intensive use of allopathic medicine to increase production and reproduction. A further challenge, ensuring traceability in animal husbandry, was emphasised particularly by conference participants from various countries in the Global South.

The conference highlighted that organic livestock farming is not a single, globally uniform system but rather encompasses a wide range of realities and production contexts. In the Global North, organic livestock production is typically well established and supported by extensive certification frameworks. In contrast, many livestock husbandry systems in the Global South already include core organic principles through their traditional practices, yet they have often not been incorporated into formal organic certification schemes, and livestock owners are not sufficiently sensitised and educated about organic animal husbandry.

Despite these profound differences, participants expressed a shared commitment to core organic values: enhancing animal welfare, holistic and systemic thinking, and ensuring environmental and social sustainability. The value of Indigenous Knowledge and local breeds in terms of their resilience and cultural significance was consistently emphasised.

The conference created ample opportunities for participants to engage in discussions and exchange
ideas. Photo: FiBL

Key conclusions reflected in the conference declaration

The IAHA conference presented a vision of livestock farming rooted in organic agriculture, ethical responsibility, agroecology and systems thinking. Rather than prioritising productivity and technological optimisation, it framed animal husbandry primarily as a moral, ecological, and social practice embedded within sustainable food systems. Several common values were identified and published in the conference’s declaration:

1. Animals as integral partners: One strong, unifying value was the notion that animals should be viewed as an integral element of agricultural ecosystems, not merely as production units. Ethical treatment of animals is seen as inseparable from ecological sustainability and social legitimacy.
2. Holistic and agroecological thinking: The conference emphasised integrated farming systems where crops, animals, soils, biodiversity and rural communities function together. This includes themes like agroforestry, crop-animal integration, nutrient cycling and pasture-based production, and the “One Health” concept linking animal, human, and ecosystem health.
3. Sustainability beyond emissions: Sustainability was understood broadly, connecting animal welfare, biodiversity protection, cultural continuity, farmer livelihoods, food and land sovereignty, ethical consumption, and long-term ecological balance.
4. Diversity, local knowledge and inclusiveness: The conference validated practical farming experience, Indigenous Knowledge and local adaptation as legitimate sources of expertise, alongside scientific approaches. It stressed the importance of locally adapted breeds and context-specific solutions rather than universal technological models.
5. Dialogue and ethical reflection: Unlike many scientific conferences, the IAHA event encouraged normative debate, asking “How much is enough?” regarding animal products and engaging in ethical self-criticism about the future legitimacy of livestock production.

Principles and remaining challenges

Organic livestock farming relates to the IFOAM principles of ecology, fairness, health and care, offering opportunities to combine biodiversity, animal welfare, low-input farming and climate resilience. However, discussions also acknowledged trade-offs between productivity, emissions, animal welfare and land use, indicating limitations on animal numbers and product amounts. This points to the idea of “sufficiency”: sustainable livestock farming must operate within environmental and ethical limits rather than pursuing unlimited production growth. A fifth IFOAM principle of “sufficiency” was suggested to acknowledge these boundaries.

Furthermore, while standards and certification are essential, the conference highlighted challenges for smallholder farmers, particularly in the Global South, where administrative burdens, costs, lack of support and knowledge in organic animal husbandry, and traceability requirements are significant. Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) were discussed as promising alternatives to balance reliability with accessibility.

Flexible, inclusive approaches needed

For a truly sustainable future, organic animal husbandry must move beyond rigid frameworks. It needs flexible, inclusive approaches that reflect local realities, integrate “organic by default” systems, and build on ethics, sufficiency and local knowledge. Existing organic livestock systems must continue to evolve and address their remaining challenges. At the same time, we need to rethink what organic animal husbandry can mean in regions where organic farming and livestock production have rarely come together. Only then can organic livestock become a truly global concept, one that supports resilient food systems, strengthens rural communities and recognises animals as valued partners in agriculture.

Selina Ulmann is Group Leader of the group Agroecosystem Innovation & Adoption at the Department of International Cooperation at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Frick/Switzerland.

Contact: selina.ulmann@fibl.org

Link to declaration (available from 21/07/2026)

Further reading:

Rural 21 issue 2/2024: Livestock

Job Harvests: Policy Innovations for Inclusive Agrifood Employment in Africa examines employment in Africa’s agrifood systems and rural economies through the lens of structural transformation, analysing the constraints and enablers of inclusive agrifood employment. Drawing on case studies from Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Rwanda, the report highlights scalable institutional and policy innovations and programmatic interventions that have driven progress in economy-wide labour productivity, structural change, and the creation of decent, quality jobs.

Decent jobs

It is estimated that around 70 million young people in Africa are not currently in employment, education or training, and that by 2040, Africa will need to create around two million jobs a month to absorb new entrants into the labour market. The central challenge is to create employment that is productive, secure, resilient and inclusive, particularly for youth and women.

“Africa’s employment challenge is not about the absence of jobs per se; the quality of employment matters. Safer workplaces, fairer opportunities, stronger skills systems and more resilient livelihoods are essential to ensuring that agrifood transformation improves lives,” said Dr Ousmane Badiane, Co-Chair of the Malabo Montpellier Panel and Executive Chairperson at AKADEMIYA2063, presenting the report.

Structural transformation needed

In order to address interconnected challenges – including demographic pressures, climate change, weak infrastructure, insecure land rights, limited access to finance and fragmented policy implementation –accelerated structural transformation and a renewed focus on skills and entrepreneurship was needed, Badiane maintained. Only under these conditions could agrifood systems drive inclusive employment and broader economic transformation.

The report’s analysis highlights an integrated action agenda linking productivity growth, value chain development, rural industrialisation, digital transformation and skills development.

Call for a dual approach

“A dual approach is called for to harvest the jobs: indirectly creating jobs by accelerated investment in agrifood system productivity, and directly creating jobs with labour-intensive public works building productive rural infrastructure,” said Professor Joachim von Braun, Co-Chair of the Malabo Montpellier Panel at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany. Von Braun added: “The African Union Kampala agenda calls to foster agrifood system growth, and we note in the report that already more than 20 African countries invest in rural public works programmes, which were so important for jobs and transformation in China in the past, and also in India.”

Evidence from case studies

The Report’s case studies show how impactful government action can create a more enabling environment for improved labour market outcomes, particularly for youth and women in agrifood systems.

In Ethiopia, initiatives such as the Agricultural Growth Program (AGP), the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) and the Rural Job Opportunity Creation Strategy (RJOC) have strengthened agricultural development, skills, livelihood diversification and labour market participation. Agricultural Commercialisation Clusters have improved farmers’ access to services, aggregation and markets, while the Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) has attracted approximately 740 million US dollars in investment and created nearly 90,000 jobs in less than a decade, many of them for young women.

In Nigeria, improved employment planning and job matching have enhanced labour market coordination, while specialised agricultural universities and the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme have equipped young people with skills for modern agrifood value chains. Between 2015 and 2024, the Bank of Industry (BOI) mobilised more than 7 billion US dollars in catalytic capital, financed over 5.4 million enterprises and contributed to the creation of more than 15 million jobs. Through targeted financing for women, youth and rural enterprises, BOI has expanded inclusive agrifood entrepreneurship and strengthened linkages between smallholder farmers and processing facilities.

In Rwanda, the Chief Skills Office and the TVET Board have improved alignment between training and labour market needs through employer engagement and demand-driven skills programmes. The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) has strengthened the business-friendly environment, attracting investment in agribusiness, agro-processing, horticulture, dairy and logistics. Rural transformation has been supported by the Girinka (One Cow per Poor Family) programme, which had distributed more than 460,000 cows by early 2024, helping increase milk production to over one million metric tons. The programme has raised livestock productivity, boosting daily milk yields by about 50 per cent. The National Agriculture Insurance Scheme has enrolled more than 650,000 farmers and disbursed nearly 3.5 million US dollars in subsidies to protect against climate and other shocks.

Targeted policy interventions

Expanding inclusive agrifood employment across the continent can be supported through targeted policy interventions that

• position productive agrifood employment at the core of national development strategies;
• equip youth and women with the skills to transform agrifood systems;
• address informality and strengthen worker protections;
• mobilise innovative financing and private investment;
• build digital ecosystems to support rural employment and agrifood innovation;
• invest in labour-intensive rural infrastructure to create jobs and strengthen rural economies and
• harmonise labour market statistics across countries.

Recommendations

The Malabo Montpellier Panel’s recommendations below draw on the experiences of the three countries and the key factors underlying their success:

• prioritise agricultural productivity growth as the foundation for broader employment transformation;
• ensure that skills development is demand-driven and directly connected to growth sectors;
• strengthen employment policies to advance decent work, productivity, and inclusive labour markets, and advance occupational safety and health systems to improve job quality;
• expand and strengthen the quality of public works and integrate with social protection;
• strengthen one-stop business support institutions to lower barriers to enterprise growth, increase formal job creation, and expand digital labour and market information platforms to improve job matching and market access;
• strengthen high-level institutional coordination to support integrated employment outcomes.

Kampala CAADP Strategy and Action Plan as a guiding concept

The report states that with implementation of the Kampala CAADP Strategy and Action Plan (2026–2035) underway, African countries have an opportunity to strengthen agrifood systems as engines of better jobs, food security, poverty reduction, climate resilience, industrialisation and inclusive growth. This will require coherent policies, capable institutions, sustained investment and inclusive implementation.

(ZEF/sri)

More information:

Link to original article at ZEF Website

Link to report

Further reading:

Rural 21 issue 3/2024: Boosting entrepreneurship 

Rural 21 Dossier on "Employment"

Rural 21 Dossier on "Youth"

Palm oil is the most widely produced and consumed vegetable oil world-wide. It is extracted from the fruits of the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), a tropical palm native to West and Central Africa which is now also widely cultivated in Asia and Latin America. Palm oil’s versatility makes it an essential ingredient in a variety of food and non-food products, including biodiesel and cosmetics. However, the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations is linked to tropical deforestation, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, biodiversity loss, land conflicts, and other environmental and social problems.

Several national and international sustainability standards have been established as mechanisms to reduce the negative effects and encourage more responsible practices within the palm oil industry. Existing ones include voluntary sustainability standards, like Organic and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), as well as mandatory ones, like Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) and Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO). Among these, RSPO is the most prominent and the only internationally-recognised standard aimed at addressing environmental and socioeconomic issues associated with palm oil production.

Role of RSPO in international markets

RSPO was established in 2004 through a cooperation scheme between the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and several companies and stakeholders in the palm oil industry. RSPO’s main objectives include promoting practices that reduce deforestation, safeguard biodiversity and prevent the clearance of areas with high conservation value and high carbon stock. It also aims to improve living conditions of farmers and workers, with a particular emphasis on respecting the rights of Indigenous communities.

Over the last 20 years, RSPO has gained a considerable market share, accounting for approximately 20 per cent of all internationally-traded palm oil. Most of the RSPO-certified palm oil is exported from producing countries – such as Indonesia and Malaysia – to Europe and North America, where preferences for sustainability standards are high. In Germany and a few other western European countries, close to 90 per cent of all palm oil imports are nowadays RSPO-certified. This high share results from a combination of public regulations, NGO pressures and private industry commitments. In other importing regions of the world – including China and India – the share of RSPO-certified palm oil is small.

Over the last six decades, oil palm fruit production has increased more than 30-fold.
Photo: Matin Qaim

Evaluating RSPO's impacts

Many studies evaluate effects of RSPO certification on environmental outcomes, oil palm yield and human wellbeing. Some of them find positive effects in certain situations, whereas others do not. Most studies focus on specific outcomes and countries or regions, making it difficult to draw generalisable conclusions. In a systematic review and meta-analysis, which was published recently in Environmental Research Letters (Sibhatu and Qaim 2026), we have synthesised the global evidence.

Based on clear criteria, we identified 53 original studies for inclusion in our systematic review. Most of these original studies focus on producing countries in Southeast Asia (75 %), the rest on countries in Latin America and Africa, or multiple countries across continents. This regional distribution reflects the disparity in geography of palm oil production and RSPO certification. Many of the studies look at RSPO effects on specifically-defined indicators; around half focus primarily on environmental outcomes, whereas the other half analyse effects on oil palm yield, income and human wellbeing.

Environmental effects

Several studies show that RSPO reduces but does not eliminate deforestation within certified concessions. However, in nearby non-certified land, deforestation for oil palm cultivation sometimes increases. Such leakage effects were particularly shown in Indonesia, leading to a statistically insignificant effect of RSPO on overall deforestation (see Figure). This is somewhat disappointing for a standard whose main objective is to decrease deforestation.

The problem is that – as a voluntary standard – RSPO only covers a certain segment of the industry. The increased deforestation largely occurs on non-certified land, so the issue is not primarily one of non-compliance with RSPO rules. Stricter rules and more effective monitoring and enforcement may help to address the remaining issues of deforestation on RSPO-certified land, but not the leakage effects. This underlines that RSPO alone cannot solve the issue of deforestation associated with palm oil, which – by the way – holds true for any voluntary sustainability standard.

Summary effects of RSPO on environmental and socioeconomic sustainability

We also find mixed effects of RSPO on other environmental outcomes, such as biodiversity, water pollution and ecological toxicity. These effects are influenced by geographic and land-cover conditions, local farming practices, and farmers’ access to input markets and technical support. In this respect, improved designs of the RSPO standard and the institutional context can help achieve more consistent positive outcomes.

Clear positive environmental effects of RSPO were identified in terms of lower GHG emissions (see Figure). Specifically, our meta-analysis confirms a mean RSPO reduction in GHG emissions of 34 per cent per unit of palm oil produced.

Effects on yield and income

One of the key principles of RSPO is to improve the quantity and quality of oil palm yield. And indeed, most studies suggest that RSPO certification results in higher yields, which is also confirmed by a statistically significant effect in our meta-analysis. RSPO-related yield gains can be explained through farmers in certified channels having better access to credit, inputs and extension services.

Furthermore, several studies suggest that RSPO certification significantly increases the prices that farmers receive for their output, thanks to better market access and the ability to sell their produce at premium prices. Higher prices and higher yields also lead to higher revenues and profits. In some cases, the positive profit effects are not significant because RSPO certification also entails higher production and administration costs.

Beyond profit, RSPO may also influence living conditions of local communities through various indirect pathways, such as local market developments or the provision of rural services. Several studies look into such broader social effects of RSPO with mixed results. Especially in more market-oriented communities, RSPO certification is sometimes associated with better healthcare, educational facilities, and lower poverty rates, whereas such associations are not observed in communities with more subsistence-oriented livelihoods. This variation may be influenced by regional differences in infrastructure, government support and the extent to which certification bodies engage with local communities.

Limited smallholder inclusion

Globally, around half of the oil palm land is managed by smallholder farmers, while the rest is large-scale company land. In principle, both large-scale palm oil companies and smallholder farmers can be RSPO-certified. If smallholders are part of a contract scheme, RSPO certification is organised through the contracting company. Independent smallholders without a company contract can obtain RSPO certification either alone or as part of a farmer group. However, up till now, RSPO certification in the small farm sector has been very limited. In 2024, only two per cent of the estimated seven million smallholders growing oil palm globally were certified.

The low rates of smallholder participation in RSPO can be explained by various factors. RSPO certification is costly and requires formal land titles, which many smallholders do not have. In addition, without specific support, smallholders often face technical and institutional constraints to obtain certification and comply with the RSPO standard. This is a well-known problem and also the reason why RSPO developed and adopted a smallholder strategy in 2017 with various support measures, including capacity building and supply chain partnership programmes.

However, evidence suggests that obtaining certification is only part of the challenge. Even when being RSPO-certified, smallholders sometimes cannot reap the full benefits because structural features of certified supply chains exclude them from actually selling through these channels. Aggregation costs, documentation requirements and traceability constraints mean that certified mills source predominantly from contracted farmers and plantations, passively bypassing independent smallholders despite their formal certification status.

While the number of RSPO-certified independent smallholders has grown in recent years, they remain at a structural disadvantage in capturing the economic benefits of certification. Further adjustments in RSPO programmes and institutional support could help to make certified supply chains more smallholder-inclusive.

Conclusion

A few broader lessons can be drawn from our systematic review and meta-analysis. RSPO helps to increase oil palm yields and profits, and also entails some environmental benefits. However, the evidence suggests that it does not significantly decrease tropical deforestation. The effects may somewhat improve through tighter rules and standards, but likely only to a limited extent. Completely deforestation-free supply chains can hardly be achieved through voluntary certification programmes alone. The same is true for other regulations that only apply to certain market segments, such as the EU Deforestation Regulation. Mandatory national standards, like ISPO or MSPO, could be better suited to deal with leakage effects, but would need stricter rules on deforestation.

In terms of socioeconomic effects, RSPO is often associated with higher profits for producers, whereas the broader livelihood effects for local communities are mixed. Smallholder farmers are so far hardly included, which needs more attention through improved program designs. If only large plantations are certified and smallholders cannot participate, rising inequality and further marginalisation of vulnerable groups is possible, especially given that sustainability certification is increasingly required to access certain high-value markets.

In conclusion, while RSPO has certain positive effects in specific situations, further development of the standard and other policies are needed to make palm oil production more sustainable.

Matin Qaim is Executive Director of the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany.
Contact: mqaim@uni-bonn.de

Kibrom T. Sibhatu is a Research Scientist at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) in Nairobi, Kenya.

This article is based on: Sibhatu, K.T., Qaim, M. (2026). Environmental and Socioeconomic Effects of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Certification: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Environmental Research Letters, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ae803b

Further reading:

Rural 21 issue 4/2024: Land matters

Rural 21 Dossier on "Forests"

“The Hamburg Sustainability Conference 2026 demonstrated that international cooperation remains possible, even in difficult times, when the right actors come together,” said HSC Chair Achim Steiner towards the end of the conference. And German Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan added: “No country can secure peace, combat hunger or ensure economic stability on its own. The Hamburg Sustainability Conference demonstrates that partnerships lead to concrete action.” Here, the minister referred to the various alliances which the participants had agreed at the conference.

South-North Commission is to promote fair partnerships

The South-North Commission on Development, which had already been discussed for some time, was presented as one of the most important alliances. Co-chaired by former Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla and former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Commission is to advance reforms for fairer, more effective and sustainable international partnerships. It builds on the legacy of the Independent Commission on International Development Issues – better known as the North-South or the Brandt Commission – which ran from 1977 to 1980 under the chairmanship of former German Chancellor Willy Brandt.

According to Alabali Radovan, the Commission is “an independent body composed of a balanced mix of about twenty high-ranking representatives of the Global South and North”. The Commissioners are to be named by the two Co-Chairs. Members will include representatives of international organisations, national and regional institutions, academia, the private sector and civil society. Think-tanks and research institutions are to be invited to draw up studies and analyses to accompany the Commission's work. Parallel regional consultations in Africa, Europe, Latin America and Asia are to accompany the Commission's regular meetings.

The outcomes of the Commission's work are meant to inform international reform processes and provide guidance for the future course of Germany's development policy.

Addressing the impact of the Strait of Hormuz blockade

Moreover, Germany, Sierra Leone, the United Kingdom and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) presented a joint declaration on addressing the impact of the Strait of Hormuz blockade on the Global South. The declaration calls for coordinated support to address rising energy, food and fertiliser prices and to strengthen resilience in vulnerable countries. In particular, the aim is to make agriculture and food production more resilient to external shocks and to step up the expansion of and transition to renewable energy.

In addition, a wide range of further initiatives were newly established or extended at the HSC. A selection follows.

Nutrition and health

As part of the 1,000 Days Initiative for Food Security, which focuses on the critical first 1,000 days of a child's life, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), together with private sector partners from the food and chemical industries, partner countries and international organisations such as UNICEF and the World Food Programme, launched a joint Call to Action on catalysing large-scale food fortification to end child malnutrition by 2030. The initiative aims to advance concrete measures to improve nutrition during the first 1,000 days of children's lives world-wide.

In response to the Ebola epidemic, government representatives from African and other supporting countries, as well as representatives of relevant international organisations, came together for a coordination group meeting. The participants reaffirmed concrete support measures to address the acute situation and called for continued close coordination among all stakeholders to contain the Ebola outbreak.

Equality and resilient growth

The Global Alliance Against Inequality welcomed new members and agreed on a Joint Statement. Launched at HSC 2025, the alliance aims to collectively tackle systemic income, wealth and opportunity disparities. It prioritises the reduction of inequality on the global policy agenda by fostering evidence-based solutions and cross-regional cooperation.

BMZ, SAP SE, the World Bank Group and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) signed a Joint Communiqué on closing the global skills and labour gap. The communiqué responds to geopolitical tensions and demographic shifts that are reshaping global labour markets, and highlights employment, skills development and talent mobility as strategic resources for competitiveness and resilient growth.

St. Kitts and Nevis, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and “Stadtreinigung Hamburg” (Hamburg city cleaning) agreed on the formation of a new skills partnership. A trainee pilot project commences in August 2026.

Financing initiatives

The SCALED (Scaling Capital for Sustainable Development) initiative announced the launch of a new company, with Germany and Canada as public partners and Allianz, La Caisse and Zurich Insurance Group as private sector partners. SCALED develops standardised financial products to mobilise sustainable investment in the Global South.

The ICAMA (Innovative Capital Mobilisation in Africa) initiative presented first major implementation successes on innovative investment in start-ups and SMEs in Africa. Through ICAMA, private capital is being mobilised for start-ups and small businesses on the continent, with a focus on innovation and job creation. In Ghana, 35 million US dollars has already been made available for investment.

UNDP launched the first climate insurance product in Latin America and the Caribbean, integrated into national social protection systems.

(HSC/sri)

Over the past decade, agricultural soils and food systems have gained growing recognition for their role in addressing climate change. One central focus is soil organic carbon – the carbon stored in soil from decaying plant and animal matter. Higher levels of soil organic carbon improve water retention, reduce erosion and support plant growth. In regions facing increasingly frequent droughts or erratic rainfall due to climate change, healthy soils can make a significant difference for farmers. At the same time, soil carbon plays a critical role in climate change mitigation by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thereby helping to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations and limit global warming.

Hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers world-wide manage agricultural land that could potentially store more carbon through improved practices. Agricultural practices that can increase soil carbon are well known, including the use of cover crops, agroforestry and reduced tillage – also referred to as carbon farming practices. Yet adoption remains limited, especially among the 500 to 600 million smallholder farmers in Africa who often lack the financial means to invest in these practices. This creates a mismatch: the societal benefits of carbon farming practices are clear, but the costs for individual farmers can be high. Without ways to scale adoption, carbon farming’s potential for improving soil health, mitigating climate change, and supporting resilient food systems will remain largely untapped.

Vermicompost enhances soil organic carbon.
Photos: Friederike Schilling

Overcoming adoption barriers – carbon markets and projects

Carbon farming projects aim to overcome these adoption barriers by aggregating smallholder farmers and connecting them to carbon markets, where greenhouse gas reductions can be sold as carbon credits. Farmers receive payments for the ecosystem service they provide by storing carbon in their soils and vegetation. One carbon credit represents the removal or avoidance of one metric ton of CO₂ (or its equivalent for other greenhouse gases). Projects follow established methods to measure, report and verify reductions, with standards and registries ensuring transparency and credibility.

While government-funded programmes, usually referred to as payments for ecosystem services (PES), exist, carbon farming concerns initiatives that tap into private-sector capital through carbon markets. Individual smallholder farmers do not interact directly with these markets. The certification and monitoring processes required to verify carbon credits are complex and expensive. Instead, carbon farming projects typically work with large groups of farmers, aggregating their efforts to generate carbon credits at scale. These projects often involve multiple actors, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs), private companies, research institutions and farmer organisations. They provide training to farmers, help them adopt new practices, monitor changes in soil carbon and sell carbon credits on international markets.

Where does the money for setting up carbon farming projects come from?

Setting up carbon farming projects requires substantial upfront investments, while revenues from the sale of carbon credits only materialise years later. This raises a key question. Who provides the early-stage financing to bridge this gap, and under what conditions?

Kenya has become an important testing ground for such initiatives. The country hosts several carbon farming projects working with thousands of smallholder farmers across different regions. To better understand how these projects operate, our study analysed twelve carbon farming projects, examining their financial structures and governance arrangements. The aim was to identify the different ways projects are funded and assess how these funding models affect their profitability and benefits for participating farmers.

Soil sampling.

Four ways of financing carbon farming projects

The study identified four main funding models used by carbon farming projects in Kenya. Each model relies on different sources of capital and involves different arrangements between investors, project developers and farmers.

1. Donor-financed model

Early carbon farming projects were financed primarily through grants from international donors/organisations. These donor-funded initiatives play an important role in testing new approaches and demonstrating that carbon farming can work with smallholder farmers. Because they rely on grants rather than private investment, these projects can focus strongly on development goals. They may invest heavily in farmer training, community engagement, and environmental benefits. However, donor-funded projects face a major challenge: sustainability. Once external funding ends, projects may struggle to continue operating if carbon credit revenues are insufficient to cover ongoing costs. In some cases, this can lead to a dependence on continued donor support.

2. Investor-financed model

In recent years, the most common funding model in Kenya has involved private investors providing upfront financing to start the project. In return, investors receive a share – or sometimes all – of the future carbon credits generated by the project. These arrangements often take the form of forward purchase agreements, where investors agree to buy carbon credits before they are produced. This provides the project with the capital needed to train farmers, monitor carbon storage and manage certification processes. The model offers financial security in the early stages of a project. However, it can also limit future opportunities. If carbon credit prices increase over time, projects that have already committed their credits to investors may miss out on higher revenues. This can reduce the potential financial benefits available to farmers and project developers.

3. Private-sector-led model

In some cases, carbon farming projects are initiated and financed by private companies using a combination of funding sources, including equity investments. These private-sector-led models often allow project developers more flexibility. Instead of committing carbon credits in advance, they can decide when and where to sell them, potentially benefiting from favourable market conditions. However, this flexibility comes with greater financial risk. Without guaranteed buyers or investors, projects must continuously attract funding and manage market uncertainties. If carbon credit prices decline, the project developer bears the financial consequences.

4. Buyer-led model

A fourth model involves companies financing carbon farming projects directly to secure carbon credits for their own climate commitments. In this buyer-led approach, the company acts both as investor and final purchaser of the carbon credits. While this model can ensure stable demand for credits, it may also concentrate power in the hands of the buyer. Companies may prioritise securing credits at the lowest possible cost, which could limit the share of revenues reaching farmers. Although buyer-led models are usually expected to operate within company value chains, the example analysed in this study was implemented outside of a value chain, and only one such project was included, meaning that limited information is available on its broader applicability or long-term outcomes.

A farmer in his tree nursery. To remain viable in the long run, carbon farming projects need to
reinvest part of their profits to continue expanding their activities and reach more farmers.

Lessons from Kenya’s carbon farming projects

By comparing projects categorised into different funding models across multiple dimensions, the study identified several important lessons for designing carbon farming initiatives that are both financially viable and socially inclusive.

Lesson 1: Investment creates potential, but the terms of investment shape reality

For carbon farming projects, securing investment is essential to start and run the project. However, the financing terms strongly influence how inclusive and beneficial the project will be for farmers. Forward purchase agreements can help projects obtain early funding, but they often require projects to sell carbon credits in advance, which limits their ability to benefit from higher future carbon credit prices. Therefore, it is important to find a balance between obtaining enough upfront funding and keeping a sufficient share of carbon credits within the project. This balance is especially important in buyer-led models, where the investor also buys the carbon credits. The financing terms determine how future revenues are shared even before the credits are generated. Projects that retain a larger share of credits have greater potential to benefit farmers. At the same time, investors need adequate returns to compensate for the risks and the long time before profits are realised. If this balance is not achieved, projects may struggle to attract private investment. In the end, negotiating fair financing terms is crucial to ensure that carbon farming projects generate sustainable economic benefits for all stakeholders involved.

Lesson 2: Scale projects quickly to shorten investment timelines and continuously to expand impact

Many carbon farming projects aim to reach large areas of around 30,000–45,000 hectares or more. In practice, however, reaching this scale often takes much longer than expected. Validation reports from several projects show that only a small share of the planned area or number of farmers is reached in the first years. Scale is crucial because it strongly influences how much revenue a project can generate from carbon credits. If projects do not expand quickly, their revenue potential remains limited. This challenge is even greater because carbon credits are only issued every three to five years, which means that revenues come slowly. When projects fail to grow early on, this can also delay repayments to investors. Providing the long-term capital needed to bridge this period may be possible, but it often comes at higher cost. To remain viable in the long run, projects need to reinvest part of their profits to continue expanding their activities and reach more farmers. Without this reinvestment, projects risk stopping their operations once the initial crediting period ends. For this reason, carbon farming projects should focus on scaling up quickly and continuously reinvesting revenues to support further growth.

Lesson 3: More transparency (disclose costs and revenues) as a prerequisite for fair benefit-sharing arrangements

Transparency about costs and revenues should be a key principle in carbon markets, especially as these markets generate significant and growing financial flows. However, many carbon farming projects provide limited information about their costs and how benefits are shared. Clear cost reporting is important to ensure accountability and fair negotiations. In many projects, benefit-sharing agreements are based on profits rather than total revenues, even though farmers usually have no control over project costs. Without transparent accounting, low returns can easily be explained by high expenses, and there is less incentive to keep project costs low. Benefit-sharing mechanisms should reflect the risks, roles and responsibilities of all participants. Increasing financial transparency would help ensure that benefits are distributed more fairly. Carbon standards could support this by requiring greater financial transparency in project reporting.

Lesson 4: Less reliance on international intermediaries through empowerment of local implementing partners

Bottom-up approaches are important for managing natural resources and empowering farmers. However, many carbon farming projects struggle to involve farmers meaningfully in decision-making. This weakens farmers’ sense of ownership, which is important for the long-term success of projects. Although carbon standards require consultation with local stakeholders, this process sometimes becomes a formal requirement rather than genuine participation. In some cases, farmer groups are mainly created to reduce project costs rather than to give farmers a real voice. For carbon farming projects to succeed, farmers should be actively involved in both planning and implementation. Farmer-based organisations can play an important role in representing farmers and strengthening their influence. Over time, these local organisations should take on responsibilities that are currently often handled by international organisations. Strengthening the capacity of local farmer organisations is therefore key. This can help build more transparent systems, reduce dependence on intermediaries and ensure that farmers have a stronger role in shaping and benefiting from carbon farming projects.

Policy changes and future opportunities

Carbon markets are evolving rapidly, and policy frameworks are beginning to adapt. Kenya recently introduced new regulations governing carbon markets, including requirements for benefit-sharing with local communities. Such policies could help address some of the challenges identified in the study by ensuring that carbon farming projects operate more transparently and distribute benefits more equitably. At international level, new mechanisms under the Paris Agreement may also create opportunities for carbon farming projects to access additional sources of finance. However, the success of these initiatives will depend on careful project design and strong governance structures.

Carbon farming holds significant promise for addressing multiple global challenges at once. By improving soil health, it can boost agricultural productivity and resilience. By storing carbon in soils, it can contribute to climate mitigation. And by linking farmers to carbon markets, it can potentially create new income opportunities. But realising this potential requires more than good agricultural practices. It also calls for financial models that work for both investors and farmers. Different funding models offer different advantages and challenges. Understanding these trade-offs is essential for designing carbon farming projects that are economically viable, environmentally effective and socially inclusive. As interest in carbon markets continues to grow, the lessons from Kenya may help guide future initiatives across Africa and beyond.

Friederike Schilling is a Senior Researcher at the Division of Economic and Technological Change (Econ) at ZEF University, Bonn/Germany.
Contact:  fschilling@uni-bonn.de

Full study: Funding models for scaling soil health: Assessing the economic viability and inclusiveness of carbon farming projects in Kenya. ScienceDirect. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2026.107996

Funding acknowledgement: This work was supported by the Program of Accompanying Research for Agricultural Innovation (PARI), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) (project number: 2014.0690.9). Fieldwork in Kenya was further supported by a grant from the Dr Hermann Eiselen Doctoral Programme of the Foundation fiat panis. Field research in Kenya was facilitated by the BioInnovate Africa Project at icipe – International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya.

Further reading: 

Rural 21 Dossier on "Soil"

Rural 21 Dossier on "Forests"

Rural 21 Dossier on "Biodiversity"

Uneven progress

The UN Water Action Decade, running from 2018 to 2028, aims to accelerate progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 6, which focuses on clean water and sanitation for all. However, progress remains uneven, with integrated water resources management implementation still facing major challenges world-wide.

As two-thirds of the world’s freshwater flows across borders, the demand for water is rising faster than cooperation can keep up. According to UN Water, the global average implementation of integrated water resources management stands at 57 per cent. Progress is slow, and on current trends, the SDG 6.5.1 target will be missed by decades as water decisions are made in silos. Water governance around the world is therefore facing fragmented implementation, compounded by climate stress.  

Water Governance Accelerator launched

In order to counter this development, The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) took advantage of the Conference to launch the Water Governance Accelerator. This technical advisory service is designed to connect stakeholders active in the water sector and support countries and river basin organisations strengthen how water is managed across borders, regions and local communities. 

“Our water future depends on governance and not just resources. As climate change intensifies pressure on water systems and demand continues to rise, the stakes have never been higher,” said Mark Smith, IWMI’s director general. The Water Governance Accelerator was to help close the gap between international commitments and implementation on the ground.

IWMI and partners at the Fourth High-Level International Conference on the International Decade
for Action in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Photo: Feruza Alikulova/ IWMI
 

Unmonitored, outdated, degraded

In most middle and low-income countries, groundwater is largely unmonitored, concession registries are out of date, and the majority of agricultural abstractions fall outside any formal accounting system. Hydrometric networks are degraded, data sits in silos, and only 24 of 153 countries have fully operational arrangements covering all their transboundary basins, IWMI states.

“Water governance is not one static point in space. It is the interaction between municipalities setting tariffs, ministries writing laws, river basin organisations implementing agreements and regional bodies coordinating policy,” said Juan Carlos Sánchez Ramírez, Research Group Leader for Water Governance and Political Economy at IWMI, and Team Leader of the Water Governance Accelerator, presenting the Accelerator. “The Water Governance Accelerator works at every one of these scales and connects them,” Ramírez added.

A four-stage service cycle

The Water Governance Accelerator follows a four-stage service cycle designed to turn governance challenges into sustained solutions. It begins with a diagnostic phase to identify where governance is failing, followed by co-design with governments and partners to shape tailored, multi-year responses and align support from the outset. The delivery phase embeds technical teams within ministries and river basins to implement solutions collaboratively, supported by tools, evidence and legal and digital expertise. Finally, the sustain phase focuses on strengthening institutional capacity and providing ongoing advisory support to ensure lasting impact.

The Accelerator in practice

Onedemonstrable example of how this approach works in practice is the Blue Peace Central Asia (BPCA) project in the Aral Sea System, where IWMI leads a regional initiative across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. BPCA has moved regional water governance from project design to active hydro-diplomacy – engaging in dialogue facilitated through the International Centre for Water Cooperation, interstate commissions and ministerial dialogue, while translating cooperation into practical basin-level action through pilots like the Isfara River. It is also building the next generation of regional capacity through a Master’s programme in hydro-diplomacy, scientific consultations, and youth and women’s leadership in the Central Asian water sector.

(IWMI/wi)

More information:

• Link to UN Water -> SDG Target 6
• Link to Water Governance Accelerator
• Link to Study: Progress on transboundary water cooperation

Further reading:

Rural 21 Dossier on "Water"

Engaging local civil society and young people in a meaningful way

“The reform of development policy must not become a Berlin-based administrative project,” says Joshua Hofert, spokesperson for the Terre des Hommes Executive Board. “If you want to achieve effectiveness, you must engage partner countries, local civil society and young people at an early stage and in a meaningful way. A credible partnership thrives on responsible action, not fine words.”

The two organisations are calling for a strong development policy that steers Germany towards a balanced course between global responsibility and national interests. People in partner countries must also benefit from the planned cooperation with German industry.

ODA cuts are unacceptable

The organisations are particularly critical of the latest figures on official development assistance (ODA). German ODA funding has fallen by 17 per cent in real terms in 2025, whilst support for the least developed countries (LDCs) has recently (in 2024) even declined by around a third. Consequently, it is precisely those countries that are most severely affected by hunger, poverty, climate crises and conflicts – and which, according to the reform agenda, are supposed to receive greater support – that are coming under pressure.

“It is not credible to identify the LDCs as a priority but then fail to provide them with sufficient funding. This needs to be rectified in future. Anyone who promises transformation must also finance it – reliably, in the long term and in collaboration with partners. The German Government must decide whether, in times of growing challenges, it wishes to remain a reliable partner in the future,” emphasises Mathias Mogge, Chief Executive of Welthungerhilfe.

Do not undermine the principles of humanitarian aid

Cuts to humanitarian aid are also a cause for concern. Germany reduced its funding by 53 per cent to 1.05 billion euros in 2025. In 2026, funding is set to remain at the same level – the lowest it has been for ten years. At a time of multiple crises, this sends a dangerous signal.

In 2026, the German government’s expenditure on humanitarian aid accounted for just 0.2 per cent of the federal budget.
Source: Welthungerhilfe

Humanitarian aid must be consistently geared towards people’s needs and must not, as is increasingly the case, subordinated to security, migration or geopolitical interests, according to another demand set out in Kompass 2026. Its neutrality and independence must be safeguarded. The Federal Government should also better integrate development cooperation, peacekeeping and humanitarian aid (catchword: the HDP nexus) and secure them through multi-year funding.

Kompass 2026 thus makes it clear that the Federal Government must not only reform its humanitarian aid, development cooperation and peacebuilding, but must also underpin these fields politically and financially. Without genuine partnership, sufficient funding and a clear vision, aspirations will fall short of reality.

(tdh/whh/sri)

Kompass 2026 is themed “Finding a course between global responsibility and national interests”.

Download Kompass 2026 (in German)

Link to the Report’s development policy recommendations for Germany’s Federal Government

The report presents updated global fisheries and aquaculture statistics and provides information and insights on challenges, opportunities and solutions shaping the present and future of the sector.

SOFIA 2026 estimates that global fisheries and aquaculture production reached a record 235 million tonnes in 2024, 195 million tonnes of which was aquatic animals, confirming the sector’s expanding role in feeding the world.

Aquaculture on the rise, capture fisheries stable

While wild fisheries have largely stabilised, reflecting ecological limits and effective management of some fishery stocks, aquatic animal production has continued to grow, averaging 3.2 per cent annually since the 1950s. In particular, in 2024, aquaculture production of aquatic animals surpassed 100 million tonnes for the first time (valued at 371 billion US dollars at farm gate). Capture fisheries reached about 92 million tonnes and have remained within the 86–94 million tonnes range since the late 1980s.

Important protein source, but unevenly distributed

Aquatic animal foods are increasingly central to diets, with 89 per cent of production of aquatic animals going to human consumption, supplying at least one-fifth of the animal protein consumption of 3.1 billion people. The sector also supports more than 600 million livelihoods world-wide.

Despite rising availability, benefits remain uneven. Per capita aquatic animal food supply, particularly in Africa, lags well below the global average, underscoring the need for targeted policies.

A sector under pressure

At the same time, the sector faces growing pressures. Climate change, environmental degradation, economic shocks and geopolitical shifts are affecting performance and sustainability. For example, under high emissions scenarios, exploitable fish biomass is projected to decline by over 10 per cent by 2050 in several regions. The report examines how these pressures will shape the sector, alongside advances in adaptation and mitigation to climate change.

“The report illustrates that, more than ever before, a healthy planet requires a healthy ocean and healthy inland waters,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu wrote in its Foreword. “We need to ensure that all necessary efforts are made to reverse the decline in sustainability and secure the long-term potential of the sector, for generations to come.”

Trade implications and regional breakdown

In 2023, the availability of aquatic animal foods reached 171 million tonnes, but its distribution remains uneven. While in Asia the sector provides 26.3 kg per person, the availability in Africa is only 9.1 kg of aquatic animal foods per individual.

Trade in aquatic products has expanded significantly. Between 1976 and 2024, export value rose more than twenty-three-fold (nearly six-fold in real terms), in line with global trade in goods. Growth reflects higher production, improved logistics and processing, competitive pricing and trade liberalisation, with products often crossing multiple borders before reaching consumers as part of complex supply chains, the authors of the report explain.

The FAO projects continued growth in production, consumption and trade, with total aquatic animal production expected to reach 214 million tonnes by 2034.

Key facts and figures

• Aquaculture aquatic animal production topped 100 million tonnes for the first time in 2024, reaching 103 million tonnes
• Aquaculture now provides 53 per cent of total aquatic animal production and over 59 per cent of aquatic animal food output
• Including algae, aquaculture produced 141 million tonnes valued at 391 billion US dollars
• Since the late 1980s, nearly all growth in aquatic production has come from aquaculture
• Wild fisheries have plateaued; capture output of aquatic animals reached 92 million tonnes in 2024, including 80 million tonnes from marine fisheries
• In 2023, 72.6 per cent of all landings originated from biologically sustainable stocks
• Tuna catches reached a record 9.3 million tonnes in 2024
• Anchoveta catches rebounded strongly in 2024, rising by 109 per cent to over 5.0 million tonnes from 2.4 million tonnes in 2023
• Inland fisheries reached a record 12.3 million tonnes in 2024
• At 184 billion US dollars, aquatic animal trade now rivals terrestrial meat trade; over one-third of production is traded internationally
• Global per capita availability of aquatic animal food averaged 21.1 kg in 2023, rising to an estimated 21.3 kg in 2024
• The sector supports over 600 million livelihoods world-wide

Blue Transformation

To improve sustainability, productivity and inclusiveness in the sector, FAO works with Members and partners through its Blue Transformation Roadmap 2022–2030. In aquaculture, science-based governance, spatial planning and innovation, including climate-smart and integrated systems such as rice-fish farming, trout production and models combining aquaculture with renewable energy, are promoted.

In capture fisheries, the organisation supports stronger governance, better data and enhanced monitoring and surveillance. It works with regional fishery bodies to manage shared stocks and combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, while helping countries implement the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries.

(FAO/sri)

More information:

FAO website

Blue Transformation Roadmap 2022–2030

Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries

Link to Report

Further reading:

Rural 21 Dossier on "Fisheries & Aquaculture"

The BMZ also supports university partnerships through which academic programmes are established and further developed at universities in the Global South with the professional support of German universities. Both initiatives – the EPOS programmes and the university partnerships – are managed by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Around 60 German universities and more than 400 partner institutions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are involved.

Now the BMZ has decided to drastically reduce this type of funding and phase it out over the next five years. I consider this a serious mistake.

Role for development in partner countries

One argument for the cuts is that the BMZ is not responsible for funding German universities. While this is true on the surface, it ignores the fact that the partnership programmes produce highly trained experts who contribute significantly to development in their home countries.

I can speak from personal experience, as we have had a training programme at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, for many years, through which some 200 EPOS fellows from over 50 countries have earned their doctorates – nearly half of whom are women. Most of the graduates now hold high-level positions in their home countries, some as ministers, members of parliament, or in leadership roles at universities, research institutes, government agencies, companies, or development organisations. The university partnerships also strengthen local structures as well as training and innovation capacities.

A more general argument for reducing development spending is that, in times of tight budgets, we should focus more strongly on German interests. Opinions may differ on this point. What is certain, however, is that the university programmes funded by BMZ are also very much in Germany’s interest. The supported graduates and universities in the Global South develop close and long-lasting ties with Germany. Such networks are of great importance not only for political alliances but also for scientific and economic cooperation.

Programmes are in Germany’s best interest

Building on the networks of our EPOS graduates, we at the University of Bonn have recently established a new Collaborative Research Center (CRC) together with the University of Ghana on sustainable agriculture and food systems in Europe and Africa. This is a flagship project for Germany’s science and research landscape and would never have come into existence without the long-standing and trustful partnership with our colleagues in Ghana.

The German economy also benefits from these networks through access to skilled professionals and local expertise for import and export activities. For many strategically important raw materials – such as copper, lithium, rare earths and certain agricultural products – we depend on imports from abroad. From a resilience perspective, it would be wise to diversify our sources of supply. Large deposits of key raw materials are found in various countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, which, incidentally, are also the most important growth markets for the German export industry.

Local networks of experts, built up over many years and featuring trusting relationships with Germany, are invaluable for successfully establishing sustainable supply chains. The same applies to the export of German technologies and innovations. Access to local data, laboratories and knowledge of relevant standards, bureaucratic processes, and legal regulations in partner countries is a key competitive advantage.

Small savings with large negative impacts

There are probably few areas of development policy where relatively small investments generate such large and long-term benefits – for both the partner countries and Germany. The university programmes funded by the BMZ cost only about 30 million euros annually, a negligible amount within the overall development budget.

Cuts to the development budget may be necessary given the broader fiscal situation, but allowing these university programmes to disappear entirely is not a wise decision. It eliminates a cost-effective mechanism for development policy, damages Germany’s positive reputation in the world, and destroys networks that are strategically important in light of new geopolitical realities.

It remains unclear whether the Federal Government truly recognises the far-reaching consequences of this misguided decision. Partnerships that are now being dismantled to save relatively small amounts of public funding cannot simply be reactivated or rebuilt later. Germany’s withdrawal from development-oriented research and training cooperation with the Global South creates a void that emerging nations such as China will be eager to fill. Such a shift in international partnerships and alliances away from Germany and Europe can hardly be in our interest.

What is currently happening at the BMZ is also becoming visible in other Federal ministries: funding for partnerships with the Global South is being reduced. At first glance, this area seems dispensable. The withdrawal may even be cheered by those who, in their short-sightedness, advocate a “Germany First” policy. In any case, these cuts are unlikely to cost much sympathy or votes from the general public, because the broader context is simply not well understood.

I would like to see the Federal Government demonstrate greater courage and long-term vision. Without reliable partnerships in strategically important regions of the world, it will become increasingly difficult for Germany to maintain its economic and scientific standing and to continue to exert its political influence internationally.

The recently found gene, called EMF3 (Early Morning Flowering 3), shifts rice flowering to the early morning, when temperatures are cooler. By flowering earlier in the day, rice can avoid heat stress that would otherwise reduce grain formation and lower yields in tropical and subtropical regions.

Rice normally flowers between 10:00 a.m. and noon, when temperatures reach their daily peak (33°C–35°C). Heat stress during this period, expected to intensify under global warming, can disrupt fertilisation, leaving spikelets (“potential grains”) sterile, and therefore, reducing yields. The EMF3 gene, particularly its variant emf3-1D, shifts flowering by about 1.5 hours earlier, significantly improving grain fertility under high-temperature conditions.

For Dr Tsutomu Ishimaru of NARO, Japan, the discovery represents a breakthrough. “It allows rice to ‘escape the heat’ at its most critical stage, protecting fertilisation, and ensuring farmers can harvest even under extreme temperatures,” he said.

According to the researchers, no other rice variety carries the emf3-1D allele. “It appears to be a rare variant and has the potential to work across manypular varieties, including indica and japonica types,” says IRRI scientist Dr Sung-Ryul Kim. “This trait could be advantageous for hybrid seed production, where adjusting flower opening time of both parental lines with same time of day is an important consideration.”

Researchers are already introducing emf3-1D into widely grown rice varieties such as IR64, Swarna (India), Pusa Basmati (India), TDK1 (Laos), Sahel 329 (West Africa), Caiapo (Brazil), and Toyomeki (Japan). These advanced lines act as prototypes that could maintain grain fertility even in hot conditions.

EMF3 can be applied through DNA marker selection

“The emf3-1D can be applied to diverse rice varieties worldwide through DNA marker selection, giving breeders a powerful tool to develop early-morning flowering rice,” say breeders Dr Hideyuki Hirabayashi of NARO and Dr Kazuhiro Sasaki of the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS).

This breakthrough, according to Dr. Inez Slamet-Loedin, IRRI’s Rice Genetic Design & Validation Unit Head, opens the door for gene editing approaches like prime editing to rapidly introduce the early-morning flowering (emf3-1D) trait into elite rice varieties, enhancing heat resilience across tropical and temperate rice ecosystems for (both) inbred and hybrid.

Importantly, EMF3 only affects the flower opening time and does not change overall plant growth or yield under normal temperature conditions, allowing rice to become heat-resilient without losing other key traits.

“We can spend hot days in air-conditioned rooms, but rice plants must survive field heat. With EMF3, they ‘wake up’ early to avoid heat stress, showing that sometimes, being an early riser is key, not just for birds but for crops, too,” as Dr Ishimaru further emphasises.

(IRRI/wi)

Link to study:

Tsutomu Ishimaro et al. (2026): “Rice EMF3 Alleles Adjust Flower Opening Time to Enhance the Seed Setting Rate Under High Temperature Stress”, Plant Biotechnology Journal.

That is the main conclusion of the report Ecologies of Empowerment: Why and how to fund youth-led biodiversity action, published in mid-June by the Global Youth Biodiversity Network, The Iris Project, Synchronicity Earth and the Global Landscapes Forum, and supported by the Global Fund for Children and the Youth Climate Justice Fund. 

The report draws on responses from 161 youth-led initiatives across 57 countries, interviews with funders and insights from over 100 participants at two workshops. “Our hope is that this research helps funders better understand what young leaders need and what needs to change so that more flexible, accessible and trust-based funding can reach them,” said Millie Edwards, Director of The Iris Project, presenting the report. 

Some key findings of the report:

1. Youth initiatives are diverse and build inclusive, progressive next-generation leadership. On average, they work across three to four areas simultaneously, from habitat restoration and species monitoring to territorial defence, contributions to policy and more. Three-quarters of them invest heavily in peer leadership development. 
    
2. Youth initiatives are powered by volunteers and communities, building strong collective ownership but leading to burnout and exclusion. Of an estimated 21,000 contributors to surveyed initiatives, 93 per cent are volunteers. External funding is an opportunity for these initiatives to become more inclusive and sustainable.  
    
3. Youth biodiversity groups bring deep knowledge, skills, drive and strategic thinking to their work, yet barriers to accessing funding persist. These barriers are structural, not capability-based. Complex eligibility requirements, language barriers and unrealistic expectations around existing track records, among other factors, exclude many youth-led, community-rooted initiatives.  
    
4. Youth initiatives are financially insecure and rely primarily on small short-term and inflexible grants with high administrative burdens. The vast majority (85 %) of youth initiatives lack adequate funding: 44 per cent of surveyed organisations operated on less than 1,000 US dollars in 2024, including 20 per cent with no income at all. Of the grants provided, 62 per cent were under 10,000 US dollars, 58 per cent lasted less than a year, and 88 per cent were project-restricted.  
5. Young people need funders committed to their empowerment. Initiatives seek genuine partnerships with funders that reflect care, openness and flexibility while respecting their autonomy.  

“We need patient and flexible support that can follow the rhythms of nature and people. Beyond funding, mentorship and intergenerational support is equally important so youth can learn, grow and make mistakes without the pressure to immediately scale,” said Frances Camille Riveira, Co-founder of Oceanus Conservation, and a young marine ecologist participating in the report. 

Recommendations for funders

Ecologies of Empowerment reframes the funding question as one of systemic risk and calls on funders to take five critical steps:  

• recognise the risk of a sector without youth regeneration and commit dedicated resources 
• co-design fit-for-purpose funding with young people 
• streamline applications and reduce administrative burdens 
• break the “triple glass ceiling” through core, flexible, multi-year grants 
• support changemakers within their own institutions to shift resources towards youth-led work 

Eirini Sakellari, Youth Program Coordinator at Global Landscapes Forum GLF, called on potential funders to be as courageous in their investments “as young people are in their determination to build a more just, regenerative world”.

And John Hecklinger, Co-CEO of the Global Fund for Children, noted that when we resource youth-led work on biodiversity, we are not only protecting species and habitats – “we’re investing in a generation that will carry this work forward for decades”.

(GLF/sri)

More information:

• GLF website
• Link to Report

Further reading:

Rural 21 issue 2/2021: Biodiversity

320 commitments

Across the three-day conference, attendees made 320 separate commitments, including new funding for scientific research, improving waste-management programmes to reduce marine pollution and mapping Indigenous groups’ customary waters. Some of these commitments were accompanied by announcements of new funding, with a total of 6.4 billion US dollars “mobilised” across all pledges.

Several non-governmental organisations also released new reports during the conference, on topics ranging from the implementation of marine protected areas to “climate-resilient” coral reefs. 

Africa is home to 38 coastal and island states and more than 13 million square kilometres of exclusive economic zones. “This conference is about turning words into commitments, commitments into action, and action into a legacy we can be proud of,” said Hassan Ali Joho, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Mining and Blue Economy, at the beginning of the event.

Some key takeaways across the key action areas of the Conference:

Marine protected areas

An assessment by Oregon State University/USA released during the conference found that more than one-third of the Earth’s marine protected areas stemmed from commitments made at previous Our Ocean Conferences – a total area exceeding ten million square kilometres. According to the analysis, nearly two-thirds of those commitments have been fully implemented, while most of the remaining pledges “show evidence of progress”.

Several governments, including those of Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Kenya, Portugal, Senegal and Tanzania, announcedexpansions of marine protected areas (MPA). If all pledged MPAs were to be implemented, this would represent protection for around 14.4 million square kilometres or 4 per cent of the ocean. 

Coral reefs

Coral reefs play a crucial role in supporting marine biodiversity, protecting coastlines from erosion and sustaining tourism and fishing industries. However, increasing sea temperatures and ocean acidification continue to threaten their survival. Conservation experts at the conference stressed that protecting resilient coral reefs could be key to preserving marine ecosystems for future generations.

The High-Level Climate-Resilient Coral Reef Commitment is a pledge first launched at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, in June 2025 by eleven countries and several partner organisations. The initiative focuses on reefs which, according to scientists, have the “best chance of long-term survival in the face of climate change”. Five new governments – Comoros, the Dominican Republic, Kenya, the United Kingdom and Mexico – signed the commitment in Mombasa, bringing the coalition to 20 reef countries spanning all of the world’s coral regions. The goal is to reach 31 signatories – representing 80 per cent of the world’s coral cover – by November, when the COP31 UN Climate Summit is to be held in Turkey.

Illegal fishing

One of the major achievements of the summit was the adoption of the Mombasa Declaration to advance fisheries transparency and combat illegal fishing. The declaration “recognise[s]” that illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a major factor driving the unsustainable use of ocean resources and the degradation of marine ecosystems.

The declaration, which was signed by 16 national governments – eight of them from Africa – commits parties to follow a set of 10 low-cost or no-cost policy principles that governments can adopt globally, in law and in practice. The principles are laid out in the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency, which was developed and promoted by a group of civil society organisations known as the Coalition for Fisheries Transparency. 

The European Union committed 46 million euros through its Horizon Europe research programme to fisheries work, including 32 million euros for “adaptive co-management strategies” and 14 million euros for research on conservation and sustainable management of migratory fishes. The EU and Italy both also announced contributions to the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund.

Deep-sea mining

Although deep-sea mining was not a major focus of the Mombasa talks, it did feature at several side events. “It’s not whether they have the minerals, it’s whether extracting them gives a net-positive impact,” Professor Rashid Sumaila of the University of British Columbia/Canada said at a reception held by the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC). Evaluating the risk of deep-sea mining will require a cost-benefit analysis that is as “broad and inclusive as possible”, he added.

Also at the reception, Malawi’s Foreign Affairs Minister Dr George Chaponda announced the country’s support of a “precautionary pause” on seabed mining in international waters. This would prohibit mineral exploration in such areas until there is robust scientific evidence showing limited environmental harm. In doing so, Malawi became the first African country to support such a pause –and the 41^st country overall to support a precautionary pause or moratorium on the activity. Later in the week, Kenya and Madagascar announced their support for such a pause as well.

“Investing in Africa’s future”

The World Resources Institute (WRI), Secretariat of the Our Ocean Conference, analysed progress on commitments in Africa since the conference began in 2014. Data shows that approximately 78 per cent of commitments are complete or in progress – and while many historically originated outside the continent, the 2026 conference highlighted a growing shift towards African-led solutions, financing and implementation.

“Africa is home to the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population, with more than 400 million people between the ages of 15 and 35,” said Wanjira Mathai, Managing Director, Africa and Global Partnerships, World Resources Institute. “For many young Africans, the ocean is not simply an environmental issue. It is a source of jobs, food security and economic opportunity. The commitments announced in Mombasa demonstrate growing recognition that investing in ocean health is investing in Africa’s future.”

(OOC/sri)

More information:

• Link to conference website
• Link to preliminary outcome report

Further reading:

Rural 21, issue 1/2022: The land-sea interface

Rural 21, issue 4/2021: Tailwind for sustainable artisanal fisheries

The findings show that climate change, together with large-scale land and water use, is pushing the freshwater cycle further away from a stable state, as defined by the planetary boundary for freshwater change. This boundary is already considered to be transgressed, reflecting a long-term trend that jeopardises the freshwater cycle’s ability to support vital climatic and ecological Earth system processes.

Analysing “blue water” and “green water” to get a holistic picture

Using data from 1901 to 2019, and an ensemble of global hydrological models, the researchers analysed quantitative changes in both “blue water” (in rivers, lakes and groundwater) and “green water” (in soils) around the world, distinguishing between the effects of human activities, through land and water use, and the effects through human-induced climate change on dry and wet anomalies.

“Changes in the freshwater cycle have been speeding up in recent decades, and projections indicate that this trend is likely to intensify further,” says lead author Vili Virkki from the University of Eastern Finland. “When the freshwater cycle changes faster than the environment can adapt, the risks of adverse impacts increase.”

According to the study, dry and wet anomalies now occur about twice as often as they did in the early 20^thcentury, for both blue and green water. Regional patterns vary: While increasing dryness dominates in many tropical and subtropical regions, anomalously wet conditions have become more frequent in the northern boreal zone, reflected in floods and more prolonged, large-scale precipitation events.

In terms of attribution, climate change is the main global driver of these changes – and of the transgression of the planetary boundary for freshwater change. Wet anomalies are mainly driven by climatic factors, while direct human pressures such as land and water use intensify dry deviations in particular.

“The results clearly show that focusing only on blue water does not provide a sufficiently holistic picture of water cycle change and its potential impacts,” notes co-author Sofie te Wierik from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. “Changes vary substantially between regions, over time, and depending on which component of the freshwater cycle is being examined.”

In some regions, such as parts of India and Central Asia, climate change may slightly increase seasonal water availability, but these effects are outweighed by water and land use, which contributes to drier conditions.

“Our study makes clear that returning to safe limits for the global freshwater cycle will depend on addressing climate change and land and water use as interconnected drivers of change. The findings also underscore the need to better understand how planetary boundaries interact – a task we intend to take forward,” says co-author Dieter Gerten from PIK.

(PIK/wi)

Reference:

Virkki, V., Andersen, L. S., te Wierik, S., Gerten, D., Porkka, M. (2026): Regionally divergent drivers behind transgressions of the freshwater change planetary boundary. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-73051-x

Under the overarching theme “Shaping the Future of Joint Nutrition Action in a Changing World”, the 2026 edition of Rome Nutrition Week focuses on strengthening joint approaches, enhancing coordination and identifying practical pathways to accelerate nutrition progress in a rapidly evolving global context. 

The “Four Levels of Food” framework

Referring to the “Four Levels of Food” framework, Qu outlined a pathway from basic staples that prevent hunger, to nutritious foods that provide essential vitamins and minerals, healthy diets that reduce disease risks and functional foods with scientifically proven benefits beyond basic nutrition, such as fermented products or bio-fortified crops. He affirmed that “FAO is working with countries to reshape agrifood systems, so that they deliver not just basic staples, but nutritious, healthy and functional foods”. This involves diversifying production, reducing post-harvest losses and protecting biodiversity to ensure food diversity on our plates.

Regarding food accessibility, Qu highlighted the need for targeted interventions for vulnerable populations: “For rural communities, indigenous peoples, and women-headed households, we need targeted interventions such as school feeding programmes, local food procurement and support for smallholder farmers to connect to markets.”

On the issue of food affordability, the FAO Director-General noted: “Today, healthy diets are simply too expensive for billions of people; with the cost of a nutritious diet exceeding average incomes in many low-income countries.” Qu highlighted that 2.6 billion people could not afford a healthy diet. He stressed that “we cannot solve this by production alone – we need social protection, income support, and policies that lower the price of fruits, vegetables and proteins”.

Delivering as One

Qu emphasised that the “Four Levels of Food” provided a crucial roadmap for enhancing food security. However, he noted that implementation required systemic coherence. “That is why ‘Delivering as One’ is so critical,” he stated. No single agency can fix food affordability, and no single ministry can ensure accessibility. “We need inter-institutional, cross-government, and effective collaboration with all stakeholders,” Qu added, stating that FAO is working with all partners to achieve the following objectives:

• align agrifood policies with nutrition outcomes,
• strengthen food environment monitoring, and
• promote biofortification and functional food innovations.

“On this World Nutrition Day, let us move beyond fragmented efforts and commit to working together in an efficient, effective, and coherent manner to ensure that basic, nutritious, healthy and functional foods reach those who need them most,” the Director-General concluded.

Later this year, FAO will publish its first High-Level Report on the State of Healthy Diets, aimed at strengthening the global evidence base for nutrition policy-making and supporting countries in designing more effective responses to malnutrition.

(FAO/wi)

More information:

UN World Nutrition Week 

The report, published for the third time by the Global Water Monitor Consortium, builds on the work of previous years, summarising the state of the global water cycle in 2025, identifying key trends, and analysing major hydrological events. It includes updated metrics on rainfall, temperature, air humidity, river flows and water stored in lakes, soil and underground. It also provides insights into extreme rainfall and temperatures.

A threat to people, ecosystems and infrastructure

The report’s findings point to a global water system under growing stress, where faster hydrological change and rising temperatures are reshaping risks to people, ecosystems and infrastructure:

• The past three years were the hottest on record world-wide, confirming a persistent warming trend.
• Hot days exceeding 35 °C have been increasing by 1.2 per cent per decade, elevating risks to human health, ecosystems and agricultural systems.
• Extreme rainfall intensified globally, with maximum daily precipitation rising by 2.3 per cent per decade, increasing exposure to floods and landslides.
• “Climate whiplash” amplified disaster impacts, with rapid transitions between wet and dry conditions affecting the same regions in quick succession.
• Flash droughts are emerging as an increasingly distinct hazard, driven by rapid declines in soil moisture and water storage over days to weeks rather than gradual seasonal drying.

Shifts in regional risks

Water-related hazards appeared in regions where they had once been rare, including an equatorial cyclone affecting Indonesia and unprecedented glacial lake outburst floods in the Hindu Kush Himalaya. Among risks developing for 2026 is drought building across the Mediterranean, the Horn of Africa, Brazil and Central Asia, while above-average flood risk is emerging across the Sahel, southern Africa, northern Australia and much of Asia.

The report reinforces a clear message: as the planet warms, water challenges are escalating, year after year. 

(GWMC/sri)

More information:

Global Water Monitor Consortium website

Across the development sector, innovations and policy ideas with real promise often fail to deliver impact beyond the pilot phase because they are scaled as blueprints, rather than being treated as living systems. Scaling is approached as a final step, something that happens after a solution has been designed, instead of as a process of adaptation which ensures that users, institutions, markets and governance structures are ready to evolve together.

Our food and water systems are facing pressures unlike anything we have seen before. The impacts of climate change, rising demand, political instability and tighter budgets are pushing countries of the Global South into cycles of growing risks. The development sector is also going through its own reckoning, with 360 billion US dollars in official development assistance (ODA) funding lost in 2024 and 2025. The sector is now seeing an increase in accelerators to bring in capital and scale private-sector products. But without structural change to the ecosystem, finance, policies, markets, incentives and institutions, even the most promising innovations cannot scale.

The challenge is not a lack of innovation but a lack of adaptation. When scaling is seen as a linear process, it assumes that what worked once will work everywhere. But real-world systems, especially in Africa and Asia, are complex, and are constantly changing under the pressures of climate, markets and politics. And in food systems of the Global South, farmers’ decisions to adopt a new tool depend as much on credit and trust as on the technology itself.

For years, accelerators have focused on financing innovation scaling as isolated solutions. This approach leads to short-term wins, but rarely creates long-term transformation. It also leaves behind entrepreneurs who could thrive if the ecosystem and enabling environment around them were managed to evolve with their needs. What we need now are accelerators of systems, or mechanisms that connect innovators, investors and institutions in ways that allow good ideas to survive uncertainty and reshape systems.

The Adaptive Scaling Ecosystem (ASEco), developed by the International Water Management Institute and with partners in Ghana, Mali and Ethiopia, is a framework that helps experts rethink how ecosystems could function for innovations to scale and systems to transform.

In practice, this means co-designing scaling pathways and business models with farmers, the private sector and governments to adjust interventions as contexts change. It also means building governance structures that distribute power and knowledge more fairly. The framework treats scaling as a coevolution process where both the innovation and the system around it learn and change together.

ASEco helps rebuild the “plumbing” of innovation by aligning the interests of decision-makers, entrepreneurs, farmers and institutions around a shared way forward.  In Ethiopia, Ghana and Mali, ASEco was put to the test on one of the most promising yet complex technologies in the Global South – solar-powered, farmer-led irrigation.

The potential is enormous. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, more than nine million hectares of land could be transformed by smallholder irrigation, turning dry seasons into growing seasons and farmers into entrepreneurs, while also reducing energy costs and pollution. But scaling a revolution is never simple, and solar-powered irrigation raises hard questions. How can we make the technology more accessible? How do we prevent exhausting aquifers? And how can we align policies and avoid deepening social inequalities?

In Ghana, where 2.3 million hectares are suitable for solar irrigation, ASEco helped to build 17 new distribution networks, connect more than 2,600 value-chain actors and identify close to 900 new customers, contributing to an 80 per cent jump in sales in just one year. A market segmentation study showed that “one-size-fits-all” products were holding the company back; redesigning for different farmer segments opened the door to entirely new markets.

In Ethiopia, a series of demand–supply workshops supported the expansion of solar irrigation into four new regions and reached nearly 300 farmers with solar pumps. In Mali, scaling partnerships reached more than 6,200 farmers, one quarter of them women, with users reporting income gains of up to USD 5,262 US dollars per hectare. These results were not the outcome of a single technology, but of an ecosystem deliberately aligned around innovation, finance, institutions and real farmer needs.

For decades, success in development and scaling of solar powered, farmer-led irrigation has been measured by hectares covered, pumps installed or farmers reached. But the true impact lies in the stability, fairness and sustainability of the systems that remain when projects end.

With recent funding cuts, many international organisations have had to focus on short-term emergency response rather than resilience-building efforts. Research for Development organisations have a responsibility and an opportunity, to change this mindset. We can influence how donors and governments define impact by reframing our own work, by asking research questions that prioritise resilience, equity and long-term value, by designing programmes that adapt to uncertainty, and by demonstrating that a dollar spent on prevention and system-strengthening goes far further than a dollar spent on an accelerator grant.

ASEco provides the practical pathway for this shift. It offers the evidence base and methodology to show that adaptive solutions not only survive complexity, but generate far greater returns for farmers, institutions and ecosystems over time.

The lessons from Ghana, Ethiopia and Mali point to the same truth: innovations do not scale in a vacuum, they scale in ecosystems. For policy-makers, that means designing programmes which leave room for feedback and flexibility. For donors, it means rewarding learning as much as success and allowing for solutions to shift overtime. For researchers, it means embedding co-design, iteration and scaling into every stage of innovation. If we want lasting impact in a world shaped by climate change and uncertainty, we must stop chasing quick wins and start building resilience from the ground up, with solutions, institutions and communities growing stronger together.

More information:

The Adaptive Scaling Ecosystem (ASEco)

Further reading:

Rural 21 no 04/2022: Financing sustainable agri-food systems

Rural 21 no 01/2020: Water for food and agriculture

Rural 21 Dossier on "Water"

Ms Tesdall, are young people getting the attention they need in politics?
Genna Tesdall: Ten years ago, when I first started advocating for youth issues, the battle was to get youth beyond the role of “being seen and not heard”. We’ve made huge progress in that area; now youth are consistently consulted, even if often in a tokenistic manner. We are able to bring forward platforms on human rights, agroecology and a just transition. What’s harder is to press back on the politicians when they are not honouring their commitments to these platforms; since the engagement is tokenistic, it’s a great way not to get invited the next time. So our position in advocacy is not secure.

Neither are we naive as youth activists – corporate interests are playing a huge role. Corporations are very able to fund everything that they want to do for their activities, and these usually don’t align with a human rights and agroecology-centred approach. So that's a huge challenge, because who gets listened to is also a factor when it comes to who can fund more people to go and talk to the politicians.

You are also campaigning for a general transformation in agriculture. What would have to change?
Genna Tesdall: We believe that there should be people's leadership in the agricultural system. What does that mean? For one thing, it means an agroecology and human rights-based approach. In practice, we see increasing farm sizes and a growing need to invest more capital to be able to even start farming or be a farmer. It should be possible for a young person to enter agriculture, to be able to access a plot of land and start farming, even if they're not inheriting land from their father or grandfather. What's holding so many young people back is that we don’t have access to productive assets. Young people should be able to take leadership positions and really have a leading role in this transformation. Of course, we advocate for an agroecology approach as well. We really believe that helps because it's centred a lot around people's leadership and community leadership. In many cases, our current agricultural system doesn't respect most people, it doesn't respect most living beings.

Are young people more open to the transformation you are advocating?
Genna Tesdall: You see that young people tend to be on that curve of early adopters. Young people have generally less vested interest in the system. We do not already own land, we don't already have a retirement plan, we do not already own houses or businesses. And so we also have the latitude to dream what that new world could look like and really make it feel like our own as well. And everyone loves their own idea – including youth! So that's a great way to make change happen in our view. Of course, we don't want to be adversarial against past generations. I think that would maybe distinguish some of our activities from other activities, because we really do believe we have a lot to learn from each other, and we want to work in cooperation. But while acknowledging that we're in a vulnerable position, we're going to speak up. We're going to say how we want things to happen. And sometimes that's going to be different than how things have been done in the past.

Nevertheless, in many countries, it is difficult to get young people to take an interest in agriculture …
Genna Tesdall: Currently, we do not have a strong eye on what is going to happen to our food supply, to food processing, to food distribution, if we are not allowing people to have good livelihoods in these areas. We know food systems have some of the most dangerous and indecent working conditions, like exposure to dangerous machinery, toxic pesticides, low wages and precarious wages. Then you wonder why people aren't in these professions. These poor conditions are not a working environment I would wish for my child, for example. So we have to take that on, or we're going to have a really big challenge with food production. And that may seem really far off, but it's not that far off.

So what constitutes a fair and good food system in your eyes?
Genna Tesdall: In our eyes, a fair and good food system is one that respects human dignity, the dignity of living beings – it respects the human rights approach but also provides good, decent livelihoods for people where they feel that they can also be a little bit creative with what they are doing, that they can put their talent to work. Think about the things that make you feel like you have a worthwhile profession or worthwhile life. This is what we want to be able to imagine for young people in the food system. We imagine that then going to smaller structures, so that you can really have a community-level organisation.

What do you think your network’s greatest strength is?
Genna Tesdall: YPARD was founded around 20 years ago to connect young people all around the world in agriculture. It can feel very lonely when you're in the food and agricultural sector. As a young person, first, trying to make a career and connecting with your peers can be really empowering because you can ask those silly questions or ponder those difficult aspects of being in this sector. And then also have the courage to just try something out together. And I think that's the real beauty. You make your own mistakes, you have your own success, and then, hopefully, you learn from your mistakes, and then you continue more on the path that gave you success.

And what are you trying out at the moment? 
Genna Tesdall: We're working a lot with what we're calling community solutions, fellowships and internships. A group of young people getting together and saying, hey, there's a problem in my community, and I want to solve it. And so with this solution, they apply to the project. It can either be in its idea stage, or it can already be in the process of implementation. And then they get a fellowship of about ten months and they're coached. They are offered learning modules that are related to their project, and of course are then connected to others in the sector, both in their country and around the world, so that they can help them get that project off the ground. So we're building their professional skills, but also their networks and that project at the same time. We're in about the third iteration of this type of model. And, of course, we're learning a lot from doing this model, but we see that there's so much demand. When we opened up our last call for applications, we had six slots, and in about three days, we got 500 applications. So this is a good sign for us that we should continue doing things in this direction and keep tinkering on the concept.

What brought you into agriculture?
Genna Tesdall: My grandparents were farmers in rural Iowa. When I was around ten years old, my grandparents passed away and the farm was sold off. I think that had I been a little older, I would have been the one to say “please let me farm it”. But that was not how things worked out. Even so, I had always been really interested in farming and agriculture, and had this connection. That is what brought me to it. At the same time, I grew up in a university town. I had a lot of friends who came from international backgrounds. That led me to this this career in development cooperation.

Where do you see YPARD in ten years’ time?
Genna Tesdall: Personally, I would love to see being able to start more learning centres in communities to help make this vision of localisation happen more strongly. Our new strategy says that we want to work more on localisation at the country level, at the local level. What exactly does that work look like? I can imagine having great learning centres for people where people can come have an experience, learn more about different agricultural techniques and connect. We have these models all around the world, but there's still so much need for them. They sound like such a simple idea, but there are still so many areas that don't have them. Sometimes we don't have to invent something crazy and new, we just have to do something well.

This is an abridged and edited version of an interview first published at www.foodfortransformation.org. Genna Tesdall was interviewed by Jan Rübler.

Further reading:

Rural 21 Dossier on "Youth"

“A synergy is created when we combine Indigenous knowledge with modern technologies,” said lead author Dr Gilbert Nchongboh Chofong, Senior Research Associate at the Julius Kühn-Institut in Brunswick/Germany. “Our review shows that by using a combined, participatory approach, focusing on traditional techniques and modern approaches, stakeholders can unite to improve disease management, strengthen sustainable agriculture, and build more resilient food systems across Africa now and in future.”

Local communities have long identified disease-resistant traits in plant varieties, cultivating them through seed selection, conventional breeding and intercropping. Today, modern research employs smart breeding techniques (e.g. screening for molecular markers) that develop genetically improved crops for enhanced plant yield and resistance to plant viruses and other diseases. By integrating techniques, embracing both traditional wisdom and cutting-edge approaches, the strategy aims to improve plant health, reduce food shortage and foster economic growth in Africa.

Broadening the application of the One Plant Health strategy

Furthermore, the strategy can be applied to address broader environmental problems. An integrated approach can help to tackle challenges such as deforestation, land degradation, soil pollution and water scarcity, the authors maintain.

Collaboration is key to the strategy, which emphasises coordinated efforts among diverse participants, including researchers, farmers, local communities and policy-makers.

Strengthening the integration of Plant Heath in One Health

The paper aims to promote the integration of plant health and phytopathology into the One Health concept and encourage practices in agroecology to address broader health challenges. By researching the interconnectedness of human, animal and ecological well-being, the study explains how we can better limit the impact of emerging plant pathogens on health in general. Plant health remains underrepresented within One Health, making the study particularly important within the framework, the authors stress.

(CABI/wi)

Full paper reference:

One Plant Health Concept: Addressing emerging plant viruses and food security in Africa.

More information:

The “One Health" Concept of WHO

More about CABI Digital Library

Rural 21 issue no 4/2020 : One Health

Rural 21 issue no 1/2024: Indigenous peoples - why rights and resources matter
 

In his opening remarks, Boris Erg, Director of the European Regional Office of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), emphasised the need to join forces to protect nature and stressed the importance of Bonn as a “global hub for sustainability”. The city’s role in addressing the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, and particularly in supporting the three Rio Conventions, adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil in 1992, was also emphasised by CIFOR-ICRAF Chief Executive Officer Elaine Ubalijoro, who noted that climate, biodiversity and land were inseparable, and that landscapes were essential to all three aspects.

Boris Erg (IUCN) opening the meeting. Photo: Louise Bazelaire/IUCN

In the panel session, Andrea Meza Murillio, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), noted that the current large number of political crises were making dialogue between NGOs, governments and other actors all the more important. “More efforts and more commitment are needed,” Murillo said. “Above all, the connections between the Rio conventions have to be understood to enable planning in a more integrated way.” She gave the example of a single plan presented to the three Conventions setting out from the perspective of land. “It is important to know where measures are to be taken,” Murillo emphasised. “Land brings cohesion. It has to be protected, also with regard to land-use changes leading to emissions. Furthermore, dialogue is needed when it comes to rangelands and pastoralists.” Murillo also emphasised the need for policies to achieve coherence and synergies with view to lasting system change.

Better alignment needed

Robert Spaull of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPDES) emphasised that given the large amount of evidence available, an evidence gap did not exist generally regarding the issues addressed by the Rio Conventions. Spaull also referred to strong ambition on the part of the parties involved to achieve the goals the conventions were working towards. “However, delivering on these goals is fragmented and often inefficient,” he noted, adding that “policies and efforts across sectors must be better aligned to avoid counterproductive overlaps and achieve global targets”. Backing Murillo’s statements, Spaull maintained that achieving true progress required changing both policies and the underlying practices, mindsets and approaches driving climate, biodiversity and land-use decisions.

Damon James of UNFCCC underlined the importance of the Paris Agreement as a multilateral, universal framework for progress. “It is important as a driver, and it has reshaped response,” James noted. “Nearly every country is now part of the effort and has made progress, also through the national climate plans.” He also referred to the increasingly important role of renewables in the energy sector. Nevertheless, plans had to be more interlinked. Referring to projections presented at the UNFCCC Conference in Belém/Brazil in 2025 that temperatures are set to rise by 2.5° C this century, James stressed the urgent need for countries to accelerate shifts to clean energy and to strengthen their national climate plans. He agreed with Spaull that implementation was lagging and emphasised the significance of transformation across sectors and of coordinating isolated, sectoral efforts.

Linking Indigenous and local knowledge with science

Other aspects taken up in the subsequent discussion included tension between various actors in transformation processes. Referring to relations between local communities and Indigenous Peoples, Murillio reported that efforts were being made to align the role of local communities as stewards of landscapes with Indigenous Peoples’ organisations. More discussion was required, e.g. regarding critical minerals, instead of addressing such issues in silo approaches. James emphasised the importance of just transition pathways. And Spaull stressed the importance of accessing the widest diversity of knowledge available. Here, it was vital to focus on linking Indigenous and local knowledge with science. Dialogue had to be established between Indigenous Peoples and science.

Further issues in the discussion included assessing which elements of an individual Rio Convention could be adopted by the respective other two Conventions. Conflicting issues were also referred to, such as the importance of growing more forests while bearing in mind the threat of invasive species. It was observed that forests indeed play a role in all three Rio Conventions.

Communicating the context of the Rio Conventions to the broader public was another key aspect at the meeting. Here, the role of media reporting was stressed in pushing for climate action and pressuring governments to make more efforts. It was important to demonstrate what civil society was doing, and that generally, people did care about climate and were taking action on climate issues.

Supporting governments in planning and taking action across different sectors was a further issue in the discussion. Here, the importance of providing knowledge and guidance was stressed, also with regard to the key role of science and research. Safeguarding funding to ensure that multiple goals were delivered simultaneously was another aspect addressed in the context of a transformative approach in tackling the issues concerning the Rio Conventions.   

Mike Gardner is a free-lance journalist based in Bonn, Germany and is German, Swiss and Austrian Correspondent for University World News.
Contact: mike.gardner(at)zaehlwerk.net   

Further reading:

Rural 21 no 4/2024: Land matters

Rural 21 no 1/2024: Indigenous people – why rights and resources matter

Rural 21 no 2/2021: Biodiversity

IWMI explains that the agreement is part of the Solar Energy for Agricultural Resilience (SoLAR) project. Led by IWMI and supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the SoLAR project aims to unlock investments to scale solar energy solutions for agriculture. Now in its second phase, SoLAR operates across India and Bangladesh in South Asia and Ethiopia and Kenya in East Africa.

Agriculture is a major driver of Ethiopia’s economy, and solar irrigation is increasingly seen as a viable option to support rural livelihoods. Ethiopia’s entry into SoLAR comes as the country accelerates efforts to expand clean irrigation.

Through this new partnership, IWMI and ESEDA are working to integrate solar energy into national programmes. They will test gender-inclusive financing models and generate on-field evidence through pilot demonstrations. Furthermore, IWMI researchers are going to introduce knowledge-sharing platforms to improve food security and advance climate adaptation.

Collaboration in research and knowledge exchange

IWMI and ESEDA are collaborating in research on integrating solar technologies into water resource management, too. The focus is on innovations in climate-resilient agriculture and efficient irrigation systems. The partnership also aims to facilitate knowledge exchange through training and capacity-building for farmers, technicians and policy-makers, strengthening awareness and adoption of best practices in solar-powered irrigation.

Piloting PPP businesss models

The Country Project Management Committee (CPMC), of which ESEDA is a member, is a national-level coordination body established under IWMI’s SoLAR project. The CPMC guides implementation, ensures alignment with government priorities and facilitates coordination among key stakeholders, including public institutions, research organisations and private sector actors in Ethiopia. One key component of this collaboration is private sector engagement. IWMI and ESEDA are working together to forge partnerships with private sector actors and pilot Public–Private Partnership (PPP) business models.

These pilots aim to demonstrate the economic viability of solar-powered irrigation solutions and help unlock investment for scaling access to climate-resilient and solar-powered irrigation solutions, says IWMI.
(IWMI/wi)

More information:

Link to SoLAR: Solar Irrigation for Agricultural Resilience

Rural 21 no 01/2020: Water for food and agriculture 

Substantial cuts since 2022

“The ongoing cuts by the Federal Government are a moral failure and send a disastrous signal,” says Thorsten Klose-Zuber, Secretary-General of the NGO Help – Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe, because: “Already, around 6.8 million people have lost access to vital support as a result of the Federal Government’s cuts to date.”

Between 2022 and 2026, funding for humanitarian aid was already cut from 3.14 billion euros to 1.05 billion euros – a reduction of almost 70 per cent. The BMZ has also had to reduce its budget by more than 30 per cent since 2022. Among other things, this means cuts to reconstruction efforts in conflict zones. “This work is crucial to providing people in crisis regions with long-term prospects and financial independence,” Klose-Zuber stresses. Cutting funding for this not only costs lives but also jeopardises the stabilisation of entire regions in acute crises.

It is currently unclear to what extent humanitarian emergency aid will once again be affected by the cuts at the Foreign Office. What is certain, however, is that the budgetary parameters for the next three years leave no scope for adequate funding of humanitarian aid.

At least 2.8 billion euros for humanitarian aid

An estimated 239 million people world-wide are dependent on humanitarian aid. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that, as of now, only ten per cent of the funds required to meet these needs has been allocated for 2026. According to a study recently published in The Lancet, the collapse in official development assistance (ODA) funding could result in up to 9.4 million additional people dying by 2030.

In view of the critical situation and the vast needs, the development organisation ONE and the umbrella organisation for development and humanitarian organisations, VENRO, are calling on the German government to fulfil its international responsibilities and increase funding for development cooperation and humanitarian aid in the 2027 budget. The two organisations state  that the BMZ requires a budget of at least 11.2 billion euros for the coming year, and that funding for humanitarian aid has to rise to at least 2.8 billion euros.

(ONE/VENRO/sri)

By Hannah Ameye and Vivien Hülsen

Africa is the fastest urbanising region globally. Villages are turning into towns, cities are expanding, and a rising share of people now live somewhere between a small market town and a bustling megacity. This has a direct effect on how people eat.

The conventional wisdom has been that urban households eat better thanks to more diverse diets and less hunger. But the situation is considerably more complicated, and effects depend on who you’re assessing. Our research, based on individual-level data from Malawi, paints a more nuanced picture of how diets shift along the rural-urban gradient.

More food, but not always better food

Our study tracks food consumption and nutrient adequacy for over 2,200 individuals, differentiating between men, women, adolescents and children, across a steep rural-to-urban gradient in Malawi's Central Region. We use satellite nightlight imagery as a continuous measure of urbanisation, allowing our assessment to move beyond a simple rural-urban binary.

First, we find that overall calorie intake rises substantially with urbanisation. This is cause for optimism in a setting with high levels of undernourishment. Further, people in more urban areas consume more animal-sourced foods, legumes, and oils and fats, which translates into better adequacy of carbohydrates, protein, fats, iron, zinc and vitamin B12.

However, it is not just the consumption of healthy and micronutrient-dense foods that increases. In the most urbanised areas, consumption of unhealthy food such as refined grains, deep-fried snacks, sweets, sugar-sweetened beverages and processed foods rises sharply. Simultaneously, intake of whole grains, dark green leafy vegetables, fruits and nuts declines. The result is a diet that is higher in calories and some key nutrients, but whose overall composition does not improve, and for some micronutrients even worsens.

Women, children and adolescents bear the brunt

One of our most novel contributions is the ability to assess how diets change for individuals, which reveals that not all household members are affected in the same way. While men experience increases in a broad range of foods with urbanisation, including some unhealthy foods like sugar-sweetened beverages, women, adolescents and children suffer the sharpest deterioration in relative diet quality.

Adolescents, for instance, show the largest increase in consumption of refined grains and deep-fried foods of any group (see Figure below).

Effects of urbanisation on unhealthy food group consumption (g/day)

Note: The graph shows the regression results of the effects of urbanisation, proxied by nightlight intensity, on the consumption of unhealthy food groups. The bar length indicates the strength of the relationship, with insignificant results at the 10% level highlighted in grey.

Children and adolescents in highly urbanised areas also consume significantly more sweets and juice than their rural counterparts, while eating fewer whole grains, fruits and leafy vegetables that are the foundation of nutritious diets (see Figure below). For both, the strong improvements in macronutrient adequacy with urbanisation are not accompanied by equally strong increases in calcium or vitamin adequacy. One exception is vitamin B12, which is driven by higher animal product consumption.

Effects of urbanisation on healthy food group consumption (g/day)

Note: The graph shows the regression results of the effects of urbanisation, proxied by nightlight intensity, on the consumption of unhealthy food groups. The bar length indicates the strength of the relationship, with insignificant results at the 10 per cent level highlighted in grey.

Women show similar trends with significantly higher consumption of refined grains, starches and fried foods compared to men, whilst improvements in meat consumption and associated nutrients remains lower. The shift away from traditional, nutrient-rich staples towards processed convenience foods appears to hit the young and female members of households hardest.

This matters enormously given Malawi's existing burden of malnutrition. Female overweight and obesity are rising quickly, with obesity among women now exceeding rates of female undernutrition. Urban growth, if unmanaged, risks accelerating this trend while leaving pockets of micronutrient deficiencies untouched.

What drives the change? Income and food environments

We further explore the factors behind these dietary shifts. We find evidence of two key pathways through which urbanisation changes diets: rising household income and changing food environments.

With changing food environments in urban areas, vegetables are often considered inferior food. 
Photo: Vivien Hülsen

Income is the single most important driver. With rising income-generating opportunities in urban areas, purchasing power rises and food spending changes. In settings of high undernutrition, even modest income gains tend to increase food consumption broadly, including both nutritious and less healthy options. Access to a wider variety of foods, and particularly animal-sourced foods, in urban markets also plays a positive role for some micronutrients.

But changing food environments introduce risks as well. Urban markets offer not only greater variety but also a proliferation of cheap, energy-dense processed foods. Preferences shift, too. In Malawi, animal-sourced foods and processed snacks are desirable, while the opposite holds true for vegetables, often considered inferior foods. These attitudes, which intensify with urbanisation, can undermine dietary quality even as incomes rise.

Policy implications: act now, act specifically

Malawi is at a tipping point, similarly to many other sub-Saharan African countries. Urban food environments still contain many nutritious traditional options, with street vendors selling roasted nuts, fresh fruits and traditional dishes. But this window will narrow as globalised fast food and ultra-processed products continue to penetrate lower-income markets.

What is needed is double-duty policies: interventions that simultaneously address undernutrition and prevent the rise of overweight and non-communicable diseases. These cannot be one-size-fits-all. Given the distinct vulnerabilities of women, adolescents and children, policies must be tailored by demographic group.

Practically, this points to several areas of action. Urban planning should prioritise maintaining (and expanding) access to food markets where nutritious foods are available, affordable and safe, including traditional and informal food vendors, while regulating the expansion of cheap, energy-dense processed foods that disproportionately affect women, children and adolescents. Addressing food preferences and the desirability associated with different foods may require more targeted campaigns.

Hannah Ameye is a senior researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn, Germany.
Contact: hameye(at)uni-bonn.de

Vivien Hülsen is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at the University of Göttingen, Germany.
Contact: vivien.huelsen(at)uni-goettingen.de

This article is based on: Hülsen V., Ameye H. & Qaim M. (2026). Urbanization and individual dietary quality: Insights from Malawi. Habitat International 172, 103794.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103794

Further reading:

Rural 21 Dossier on "Food security and nutrition"

Rural 21, issue 03/2020: Changing times, changing diets

Rural 21, issue 04/2018: Rural-urban linkages

“Safe climatic spaces” threatened

The study identifies “safe climatic spaces” for cattle, sheep and goat grazing. To date, these agricultural systems have thrived within certain ranges of temperature (from −3 to 29°C), rainfall (between 50 and 2,627 millimetres per year), humidity (from 39 to 67 per cent) and wind speeds (between 1 and 6 metres per second). 

“Climate change will shift and significantly contract these spaces globally, leaving fewer spaces for animals to graze. Importantly, much of these changes will be felt in countries that already experience hunger, economic and political instability, and higher levels of gender inequity,” commented lead author Chaohui Li, PIK researcher at the time the study was conducted, and now with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center in Spain.

A challenge for traditional farming systems

“Grassland-based grazing is highly dependent on the environment. What we see is that climate change is going to reduce the spaces in which grazing can thrive, fundamentally challenging farming practices that have existed for centuries,” commented Maximilian Kotz, another of the study’s co-authors and researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and PIK.

Africa a hotspot for impacts on grazing

The authors highlight that Africa will be particularly vulnerable. Grasslands in Africa could decline by 16 per cent in a low emissions scenario, or by up to 65 per cent in a future in which fossil fuels continue to expand, as temperatures on the continent already sit at the upper end of the safe climatic spaces identified as suitable for grazing. 

As temperatures rise, the climate niches currently supporting critical grazing regions in the Ethiopian highlands, the East African Rift Valley, the Kalahari Basin and the Congo Basin will shift southward. Because the African landmass terminates at the Southern Ocean, these suitable temperature belts would eventually extend beyond the continent's edge, resulting in a loss of viable grazing land. 

Adaptation strategies soon no longer effective?

“This shift away from what we’re identifying as the safe climatic space really challenges the efficacy of adaptation strategies that have been used in places such as Africa in times of hardship, such as switching species or migrating herds. The changes are just too big for that,” said Prajal Pradhan, assistant professor of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, PIK researcher and a co-author of the study. 

“Reducing emissions by rapidly moving away from fossil fuels is the best strategy we have to minimise these potentially existential damages for livestock farming,” Li concluded.

(PIK/wi)

Link to study:

Li, C., Kotz, M., Pradhan P., Wu, X., Hu, Y., Li, Z., Chen, G., (2026): Climate change drives a decline in global grazing systems. PNAS. 

Expressed in financial terms, the report says that many societies have not only overspent their annual renewable water “income” from rivers, soils and snowpack, they have depleted long-term “savings” in aquifers, glaciers, wetlands, and other natural reservoirs. This has resulted in a growing list of compacted aquifers, subsided land in deltas and coastal cities, vanished lakes and wetlands, and irreversibly lost biodiversity.

“Investment in water is also investment in mitigating climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification.”

A systemic challenge

While not every basin and country is water-bankrupt, Madani says that “enough critical systems around the world have crossed these thresholds. These systems are interconnected through trade, migration, climate feedbacks and geopolitical dependencies, so the global risk landscape is now fundamentally altered.”

A simple illustration of water income and water expenses in a human–water system. Water bankruptcy is the outcome of both insolvency and irreversibility conditions, i.e., when water use (expenditure) exceeds water supply (renewable and non-renewable assets) for an extended period resulting in irreparable damages to the underlying natural capital that contributes to water production and stability of the hydrological cycle.
Source: UNO-INWEH

Hotspots

• In the Middle East and North Africa region, high water stress, climate vulnerability, low agricultural productivity, energy-intensive desalination, and sand and dust storms intersect with complex political economies.
• In parts of South Asia, groundwater-dependent agriculture and urbanisation have produced chronic declines in water tables and local subsidence.
• In the American Southwest, the Colorado River and its reservoirs have become symbols of over-promised water.

Vulnerability to water-related challenges

Baseline vulnerability of different nations to water-related challenges. This index reflects the susceptibility of a region to water-related challenges, considering its environmental, social, and economic conditions. Map produced based on data from Water Resources Vulnerability Monitor.
Source: UNU-INWEH

A shared global risk

“Millions of farmers are trying to grow more food from shrinking, polluted, or disappearing water sources. Without rapid transitions toward water-smart agriculture, water bankruptcy will spread rapidly,” Madani says, continuing: “Agriculture accounts for the vast majority of freshwater use, and food systems are tightly interconnected through trade and prices. When water scarcity undermines farming in one region, the effects ripple through global markets, political stability, and food security elsewhere. This makes water bankruptcy not a series of isolated local crises, but a shared global risk that demands a new type of response: bankruptcy management, not crisis management.”

“ In the fragmented world we live in, water can become a powerful focus for cooperation and for aligning national security with international priorities”

A world in the red

Drawing on global datasets and recent scientific evidence, the report presents a stark statistical overview of trends, the overwhelming majority caused by humans:

• Billions of people are living with chronic water insecurity. Around 2.2 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, 3.5 billion lack safely managed sanitation, and nearly 4 billion face severe water scarcity for at least one month each year. Almost three-quarters of the world’s population live in countries classified as water insecure or critically water insecure.
   
• Surface waters and wetlands are shrinking on a massive scale. More than half of the world’s large lakes have lost water since the early 1990s, affecting about one-quarter of the global population that relies on them directly. Over the last five decades, humanity has lost roughly 410 million hectares of natural wetlands, almost the land area of the European Union. This includes about 177 million hectares of inland marshes and swamps, roughly the size of Libya or seven times the area of the United Kingdom. The loss of ecosystem services from these wetlands is valued at over 5.1 trillion US dollars, similar to the combined GDP of around 135 of the world’s poorest countries.
   
• Groundwater depletion and land subsidence show that hidden reserves are being exhausted. Around 70 per cent of the world’s major aquifers show long-term declines. Land subsidence linked to groundwater over-pumping now affects more than six million square kilometres, almost five per cent of the global land area, and nearly two billion people. This permanently reduces storage and increases flood risk in many cities, deltas and coastal zones.

Number of water-related conflicts 

Annual number of water-related conflicts worldwide. The chart highlights an increase in number of water-related conflict incidents over time. Chart produced based on data from the Water Conflict Chronology, The World's Water.
Source: UNU-INWEH

• Water quality degradation further reduces usable water and accelerates bankruptcy. Growing loads of untreated wastewater, agricultural runoff, industrial pollution and salinisation are degrading rivers, lakes and aquifers. Even where volumes appear sufficient on paper, the fraction of water that is safe for drinking, irrigation, and ecosystems continues to shrink.
   
• The cryosphere is melting, eroding a critical long-term water buffer. In multiple locations, the world has already lost more than 30 per cent of its glacier mass since 1970. Some mountain ranges risk losing functional glaciers within decades, undermining water security for hundreds of millions of people who depend on rivers fed by glacier and snowmelt.
   
• Farmers and food systems sit at the very heart of Global Water Bankruptcy. Roughly 70 per cent of global freshwater withdrawals is used for agriculture, much of it in the Global South. Groundwater provides about 50 per cent of domestic water use and over 40 per cent of irrigation water worldwide. Both drinking water and food production now depend heavily on aquifers that are being depleted faster than they can realistically recharge.
   
• Global food production is increasingly exposed to water decline and degradation. About three billion people and more than half of global food production are concentrated in areas where total water storage is already declining or unstable. More than 170 million hectares of irrigated cropland, about the combined land area of France, Spain, Germany and Italy, are under high or very high water stress. Salinisation has degraded roughly 82 million hectares of rainfed cropland and 24 million hectares of irrigated cropland, eroding yields in key global breadbaskets.

Share of agriculture from total water withdrawals 

Agricultural water withdrawals as a share of total water withdrawals. The map shows the proportion of water withdrawn by each country for agriculture relative to combined agricultural, industrial, and domestic water withdrawals. Map produced based on data from AQUASTAT, FAO.
Source: UNU-INWEH

• Drought impacts are becoming steadily more human-made and extremely costly. The report identifies a growing pattern of anthropogenic drought, meaning water deficits caused by overuse and degradation rather than natural variability alone. These impacts already cost around 307 billion US dollars per year, more than the annual GDP of almost three-quarters of United Nations Member States.

A call to reset the global water agenda

The report warns that the current global water agenda – largely focused on drinking water, sanitation and incremental efficiency improvements – is no longer fit for purpose in many places and calls for a new global water agenda that:

• formally recognises the state of water bankruptcy,
• recognises water as both a constraint and an opportunity for meeting climate, biodiversity, and land commitments,
• elevates water issues in climate, biodiversity, and desertification negotiations, development finance, and peacebuilding processes,
• embeds water-bankruptcy monitoring in global frameworks, using Earth observation, AI, and integrated modelling, and
• uses water as a catalyst to accelerate cooperation between the UN Member States.

“A practical and cooperative focus on water offers a way to connect urgent local needs with long-term global goals.”

In practical terms, managing water bankruptcy requires governments to focus on the following priorities:

• preventing further irreversible damage such as wetland loss, destructive groundwater depletion, and uncontrolled pollution;
• rebalancing rights, claims, and expectations to match degraded carrying capacity;
• supporting just transitions for communities whose livelihoods must change;
• transforming water-intensive sectors, including agriculture and industry, through crop shifts, irrigation reforms, and more efficient urban systems;
• building institutions for continuous adaptation, with monitoring systems linked to threshold-based management.

A matter of justice

The report underlines that water bankruptcy is not merely a hydrological problem, but a justice issue with deep social and political implications requiring attention at the highest levels of government and multilateral cooperation. The burdens fall disproportionately on smallholder farmers, Indigenous Peoples, low-income urban residents, women and youth while the benefits of overuse often accrue to more powerful actors.

A driver of fragility, displacement and conflict

“Water bankruptcy is becoming a driver of fragility, displacement, and conflict,” says UN Under-Secretary-General Tshilidzi Marwala, Rector of UNU. “Managing it fairly – ensuring that vulnerable communities are protected and that unavoidable losses are shared equitably – is now central to maintaining peace, stability, and social cohesion.”

“Bankruptcy management requires honesty, courage and political will,” Madani adds. “We cannot rebuild vanished glaciers or reinflate acutely compacted aquifers. But we can prevent further loss of our remaining natural capital and redesign institutions to live within new hydrological limits.”

“Targeted investment in water can address the immediate concerns of communities and nations while also advancing the objectives of the Rio Conventions (climate, biodiversity, desertification).”

Upcoming milestones as the 2026 and 2028 UN Water Conferences, the end of the Water Action Decade in 2028, and the 2030 SDG deadline, for example provided critical opportunities to implement this shift, Madani says.

(UNU-INWEH/sri)

More information:

Link to report

Acute food insecurity – ten countries in focus

The report reveals that acute food insecurity remains highly concentrated. Ten countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen – accounted for two-thirds of all people facing high levels of acute hunger.  Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen experienced the largest food crises regarding the share and absolute number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity.

At the most extreme end, famine was identified in Gaza Governorate and parts of Sudan in 2025 by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, marking the first time since the GRFC began reporting that famine has been confirmed in two separate contexts in the same year. This signals a sharp escalation in the most extreme forms of hunger and malnutrition, driven primarily by conflict and restricted humanitarian access, and exacerbated by forced displacement, the report states.

Severity of acute food insecurity the second highest on record

According to the report, in 2025, 266 million people in 47 countries/territories experienced high levels of acute food insecurity. The severity of acute food insecurity was the second highest on record, with the share of people facing extreme hunger remaining at one of the most critical levels seen in the past two decades. Nine times more people are facing catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) than in 2016.

At the same time, acute malnutrition remains a critical and growing concern. In 2025 alone, 35.5 million children were acutely malnourished, including nearly ten million suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Nearly half of food-crisis contexts also faced nutrition crises, reflecting the combined effects of inadequate diets, disease burden and breakdowns in essential services. In the most severe contexts, including Gaza, Myanmar, South Sudan and Sudan, these compounded shocks have resulted in extreme levels of malnutrition and elevated risks of mortality.

More than 85 million people forcibly displaced

In addition, forced displacement continued to exacerbate food insecurity. More than 85 million people were forcibly displaced across food-crisis contexts in 2025, including internally displaced people, asylum-seekers and refugees with people forced to flee consistently facing higher levels of acute hunger than host communities.

“Conflict remains the primary driver of acute food insecurity and malnutrition for millions around the world, with outright famine emerging in two conflict-affected areas in the same year – an unprecedented development,” says United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in the foreword to the report. “This report is a call to action urging global leaders to summon the political will to rapidly scale up investment in lifesaving aid, and work to end the conflicts that inflict so much suffering on so many.”

Outlook for 2026 remains bleak

Looking ahead, the report warns that severe levels of acute food insecurity remain critical in multiple contexts in 2026. Ongoing conflicts, climate variability and global economic uncertainty – including risks to food markets – are likely to sustain or worsen conditions in many countries.

In particular, while a full assessment is premature, the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East – in addition to causing further displacement in a region already hosting millions of forcibly displaced and returnees – exposes countries/territories with food crises to both direct and indirect risks of global agrifood market disruptions.

Immediate food security implications are mainly regional, given the Middle East’s dependence on food imports, but are having immediate impacts on the purchasing power of already-vulnerable communities as energy and logistics costs rise. At the same time, Gulf countries are major energy and fertiliser exporters, and continued transport disruptions could create wider spillover risks for global agrifood markets, the report warns.

Declining funding threatens response capacity

This year’s report also highlights the sharp decline in humanitarian and development financing for food crises. Funding for food crises responses and for food security and nutrition has fallen back to levels last seen nearly a decade ago, limiting the ability of governments and humanitarian actors to respond effectively. Data collection has also been impacted, with fewer countries able to produce reliable and disaggregated food security and nutrition estimates.

Call to action

The Global Network Against Food Crises underscores that food and nutrition crises are no longer temporary shocks but persistent, predictable and increasingly concentrated in protracted contexts. Addressing them requires boosting sustained, coordinated action that reduces humanitarian needs, builds resilience and tackles root causes. Governments, donors, international financial institutions and partners must scale up investment in resilient agrifood systems, climate adaptation, rural livelihoods and inclusive economic opportunities, while strengthening early warning systems and enabling anticipatory action, the GNAFC claims. Preventing the most severe outcomes, including famine, also depends on ensuring safe humanitarian access, upholding international humanitarian law and reinforcing political commitment to address conflict-driven hunger.

(GNAFC/sri)

More information:

Link to report

Global Network Against Food Crises

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system