Africa

The launch of the billion-dollar site sees fresh calls for the return of antiquities held in museums overseas.

A 12-year-old tells the BBC that in the chaos he lost contact with his family and is now on his own at a camp.

A 12-year-old tells the BBC that in the chaos he lost contact with his family and is now on his own at a camp.

A l'approche des élections générales prévues le 23 novembre prochain, des officiers de l'armée en Guinée-Bissau ont été arrêtés ce vendredi.

El-Fasher is under the control of paramilitaries accused of mass executions and crimes against humanity.

2025. 10. 31.

Fegyverrel a kezében sétálgatott egy férfi csütörtökön (10. 30.) a nyitrai Klokočina lakótelepen. Csak a járőrök megérkezése után vált nyilvánvalóvá, hogy a fegyver nem igazi – tájékoztatott a Nyitrai Kerületi Rendőrkapitányság.

Une source diplomatique a déclaré à la BBC qu'il existait des preuves crédibles indiquant qu'au moins 500 personnes avaient trouvé la mort.

Pretoria rubbishes claims of a white genocide and quotes prominent Afrikaners who dub Trump's plans racist.

Lidl macht mit 60 Filialen weniger als Aldi mehr Umsatz als sein schärfster Konkurrent. Chef Nicholas Pennanen erklärte im Interview mit Blick, wie das möglich ist. Das lässt Konkurrent Aldi aber nicht auf sich sitzen.

Erstmals in der Geschichte der Auto Zürich findet eine Auktion exklusiver Fahrzeuge statt. Broad Arrow Auctions heisst das Auktionshaus, das am morgigen Samstag, 1. November, rund 60 exklusive Boliden in Zürich versteigern wird.

Ein mallorquinisches Landgut der Extraklasse ist neu auf einer Immobilienplattform ausgeschrieben – zum stolzen Preis von 29,5 Millionen Euro. Die Villa strotzt nur so von Luxus. Sie hat sogar einen eigenen Fussballplatz und einen Weinberg.

Risiko Microsoft? Korpskommandant Thomas Süssli soll von der Bundeskanzlei eine eigene IT-Infrastruktur für sensible Daten fordern. Diese zeige sich aber unbeirrt.

Nach der Derby-Niederlage kriegt Lausanne die nächste Chance am Samstagabend gegen den FCZ im Letzigrund (20.30 Uhr). Im Sturm hängt vieles von Youngster Diakité ab – in der Abwehr hingegen wird gedrängelt. Das Lausanne-Inside.

Laut der Schweizerischen Erziehungsdirektorenkonferenz muss die Schweiz in den Sprachenunterricht investieren. Ein früher Kontakt mit einer zweiten Landessprache und den sprachregionalen Kulturen der Schweiz sei wichtig, denn die Schweiz sei eine Willensnation.

Some deaths have been reported though accurate figures are hard to obtain due to the internet shutdown.

Gérald Darmanin pressed ahead despite prosecutors warning that the move could undermine judicial independence

President Trump’s global tariff regime was voted down in the US Senate in a symbolic bipartisan vote, consumers still face an effective tariff rate of 17.9%, the highest since 1934

Europe’s cross-sector partnership on alternatives to animal testing will support the upcoming EU roadmap, working alongside the bloc’s chemicals, food and medicines regulators

Crops growing at farmers’ cooperative, Baidoa, Southwest State, Somalia. Credit: FAO / Arete / Mahad Saed Dirie

By George Conway and Stefanos Fotiou
MOGADISHU / ROME, Oct 31 2025 (IPS)

Food has always been political. It decides whether families thrive or fall into poverty, whether young people see a future of opportunity or despair, whether communities feel included or pushed aside. Food is also a basic human right – one recognized in international law but too often unrealized in practice. Guaranteeing that right requires viewing food not as a form of emergency relief, but as the cornerstone of sustainable social development.

Despite this, food systems rarely feature in discussions of social policy, even though they underpin the same goals world leaders will take up at the World Social Summit in Doha this November: eradicating poverty, securing decent work, and advancing inclusion.

 

Food as social infrastructure

Food is often treated as a humanitarian issue, a matter for relief in times of drought or war. But look closer, and it is the ultimate social policy.

Food systems mirror our societies – where women bear the greatest burden of unpaid work, where child labour denies children education, and where Indigenous and marginalized communities are excluded

Food systems sustain half the world’s population – around 3.8 billion people – through farming, processing, transport, and retail, most of it informal and rural. They determine how families spend their income, who can afford a healthy diet, who learns and thrives in school, and who is left behind. Food systems mirror our societies – where women bear the greatest burden of unpaid work, where child labour denies children education, and where Indigenous and marginalized communities are excluded.

Seen through this lens, food is social infrastructure: the invisible system that underpins poverty reduction, livelihoods, and inclusion. When it functions, societies grow more equal and resilient. When it falters, inequality and exclusion deepen.

 

Pathways out of poverty

Across low-income countries, agriculture and food processing remain the single largest source of livelihoods. National food systems transformations are showing that targeted investments here can have outsized effects on poverty reduction.

In Rwanda, investment in farmer cooperatives and value chains has enabled smallholders to capture more of the value of their crops, lifting entire communities. In Brazil, school feeding programs that source from family farmers have created stable markets for the rural poor while improving child nutrition.

And in Somalia, the work of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub with the Resident Coordinator’s Office and national partners is helping to strengthen pastoralist value chains and improve access to markets. By connecting local producers with regional buyers and embedding resilience into social protection systems, Somalia is charting a path out of chronic vulnerability toward sustainable livelihoods.

This approach combines food systems transformation with climate-smart social protection – linking producers and markets with safety nets that improve nutrition, boost inclusion, and attract investment. It is a model built on social and economic partnerships between government, civil society, and the UN, and is designed for lasting impact.

These examples highlight a simple truth: inclusive, resilient, and sustainable food systems can be among the most powerful anti-poverty tools available.

 

Work that is productive – and dignified

Food systems already employ one in three workers worldwide. But too many of these jobs are precarious, low-paid, and unsafe. The transformation now underway is beginning to change that.

Digital and market innovations are linking small producers to buyers directly, bypassing exploitative middlemen. Climate-resilient practices are reducing the boom-and-bust cycles that devastate rural incomes.

In Somalia, where livelihoods are often informal and climate shocks are frequent, strengthening food systems can expand opportunity and stability. By linking pastoralist value chains to markets and building skills for youth in food production and trade, food systems can turn subsistence into sustainable, resilient futures.

This shift matters: food systems can and must become a primary engine of decent, dignified employment in the global economy – particularly for women and youth.

 

Food as inclusion

Food is also identity and belonging. Policies that make nutritious diets affordable, protect Indigenous knowledge, and integrate marginalized producers into value chains are acts of social inclusion. In many countries, universal school meal programs have emerged as one of the most powerful equalizers. They reduce child hunger, keep girls in school, and support local farmers. A single meal can nourish, educate, and empower all at once.

Another powerful tool for inclusion, resilience, and sustainability are the social safety nets designed to enable smallholder producers to shift towards more nutrition-sensitive and climate-smart production. Thanks to support from the UN system – directed through the Food Systems Window of the Joint SDG Fund, jointly coordinated by the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub and the Fund Secretariat – Somalia is strengthening its delivery of basic social services by linking Early Warning Systems to the Unified Social Registry, and accompanying its cash transfers with livelihood graduation pathways involving microinsurance companies. This effectively transforms producers from beneficiaries into agents of change.

However, to be impactful, at scale, and long-lasting, food system interventions must be guided by strong political vision and coordinated through inclusive governance – bringing women, youth, and marginalized groups into decision-making. When communities most affected by policies help shape them, the results are more effective and more enduring.

In Somalia, the Council on Food, Climate Change, and Nutrition is taking shape thanks to the Joint SDG Fund Programme and the leadership of the Office of the Resident Coordinator, FAO, and WFP. Hosted under the Office of the Prime Minister and steered jointly by the OPM and the Ministry of Agriculture, the Council will bring together 11 ministries and oversee the implementation of the Somali National Pathway.

 

The case for Doha

Why does this matter for the World Social Summit? Because food systems provide a bridge across its three pillars. They are a direct lever for eradicating poverty, creating decent work, and advancing inclusion – in practice, not just in principle.

Yet food often remains on the margins of social policy. Ministries of labor and finance overlook it. Social protection debates focus on cash transfers and safety nets, rarely on food systems, markets, or rural cooperatives. The Doha Summit is the moment to change this.

Leaders should recognize food systems as core social infrastructure – as important as schools, hospitals, and roads. This means embedding food in national social policies, scaling financing for inclusive programs, and protecting food from the cycle of neglect that follows each crisis.

 

A new way of thinking

What if we reimagined the role of food in social policy? Instead of responding to food crises as humanitarian emergencies, we could invest in food systems as the foundation of long-term social development.

Progress should be measured not only by GDP or employment rates, but by whether every child eats a healthy meal each day, whether rural youth see farming as a path to prosperity, and whether no mother has to choose between buying medicine or buying bread – feeding her family today or tomorrow.

That is the lens the World Social Summit needs. Because poverty, unemployment, and exclusion are experienced daily through empty plates, insecure jobs, and the quiet despair of being shut out of opportunity.

 

The way forward

Food systems are already delivering – in farmers’ cooperatives, women- and youth-led businesses, and in national efforts like Somalia’s to link food transformation with social protection and employment. But they remain under-recognized in the social development agenda.

Doha offers the chance to correct that. If leaders are serious about eradicating poverty, creating decent work, and advancing inclusion, they should start with food. It is the system that connects households to hope, work to dignity, and communities to resilience.

 

George Conway, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, and Deputy Special Representative to the UN Secretary General, Somalia 

Stefanos Fotiou, Director of the Office of Sustainable Development Goals at the Food and Agriculture Organization, and Director of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub