Day: December 2, 2022

Rome – The measure of changes in world food commodity prices remained largely steady in November, with declining international prices of cereals, meat and dairy products offsetting increasing quotations for vegetable oils and sugar, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported Friday.

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a basket of commonly-traded food commodities, averaged 135.7 points during the month of November, a fraction below its level in October. The Index is now only 0.3 percent higher than its level in November 2021.

The FAO Cereal Price Index declined by 1.3 percent from the previous month, but it was still up 6.3 percent from its value a year ago. World wheat and maize prices declined in November by 2.8 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively, partly influenced by the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. By contrast, international rice prices moved up by 2.3 percent.

The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index increased by 2.3 percent in November, ending seven consecutive months of decline. International palm and soy oil prices rose, while those of rapeseed and sunflower oils dropped.

The FAO Dairy Price Index decreased by 1.2 percent since October, with world quotations for butter, skim and whole milk powders falling, amid lower import demand, while those for cheese increased, in part due to less buoyant export availabilities from leading producing countries in Western Europe.

The FAO Meat Price Index was 0.9 percent lower in November than the previous month, as international bovine meat prices fell, as increased export supplies from Australia added to already-high supplies from Brazil, notwithstanding China’s continuing strong import demand. By contrast, world prices of all other meat types rebounded, led by higher quotations for ovine meat.

The FAO Sugar Price Index rose 5.2 percent in November, influenced by strong buying amid tight global sugar supplies due to harvest delays in key producing countries and the announcement by India of a lower sugar export quota. Higher ethanol prices in Brazil also exerted upward pressure on world sugar prices.

More details are available here. To access benchmark export quotations of various foodstuffs and national retail/wholesale prices of foods please visit FAO’s Food Price Monitoring and Analysis (FPMA) Tool

**2022 world cereal output forecast is lowered

**

In the latest Cereal Supply and Demand Brief, also released today, FAO further cut its forecast for world cereal production in 2022, which now stands at 2 756 million tonnes, a 2.0 percent drop from 2021.

The reduction largely reflects low maize production prospects in Ukraine, where the impact of the war has made post-harvesting operations prohibitively expensive. FAO also lowered its global wheat production forecast for the year, but despite this cut, the new 781.2 million tonne figure would remain a record high. Global rice production is expected to fall by 2.4 percent below the previous year’s all-time high.

Looking ahead, planting of the 2023 winter wheat crop is underway amid concerns over the affordability of key agricultural inputs and adverse weather conditions in the United States of America and the Russian Federation, although elevated crop prices could help to maintain an above-average area globally. In the southern hemisphere, coarse grain crops are being sown, and official forecasts in Brazil point to a record high area being sown to maize.

Further details and updated forecasts for worldwide utilization of cereals in the 2022/23 season, for world cereal stocks by the close of seasons in 2023 and for world trade in cereals are available here.

45 countries need external assistance for food

45 countries around the world, including 33 in Africa, nine in Asia, two in Latin America and the Caribbean and one in Europe, are assessed to be in need of external assistance for food due to conflicts, extreme weather events and soaring inflation rates, according to the latest Crop Prospects and Food Situation report, a quarterly publication by FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS).

Food insecurity conditions in countries in East Africa and West Africa are of particular concern.

For low-income food-deficit countries, the 2022 cereal output is forecast at 184.5 million tonnes, on par with the past five-year average, while the total cereal import requirement is forecast at 63.7 million tonnes, up 7 percent from the last five-year average. Details are available here.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

This is equivalent to a prevalence of 0.5% and 1.2%, respectively. Latin America has made little progress in reducing new HIV infections in the region since 2000, with an increase of 5% between 2010 and 2021. Furthermore, the Caribbean continues to have the highest prevalence after sub-Saharan Africa. Countries in the region continue to struggle against political, cultural, social, and programmatic barriers to eliminate new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths and discrimination.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in association with UNAIDS join efforts for the elimination of AIDS by 2030, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Thus, UNFPA works in the region and at the country level supporting initiatives that promote the integration of responses to HIV in sexual and reproductive health services, focusing on the prevention of sexual transmission of HIV and sexually transmitted infections ( STIs).

Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on a wide range of health, economic, social and personal decisions. In this context, considerations of the specific impact that the pandemic had on people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights were not a priority in most countries. In 2021 in the Caribbean 330,000 4 UNFPA contribution to HIV programming in Latin America and the Caribbean.

This report presents a wide range of national experiences focused on HIV incidence and prevention. The selected experiences highlight important technical areas and demonstrate aspects that make them promising practices, capable of stimulating the development of new approaches and adding value to initiatives already underway. It describes HIV programming activities in 10 countries of the region (Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela:

Comprehensive programming of female condoms in Costa Rica.

Comprehensive sexuality education and sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents in Cuba and Venezuela.

Integration of HIV services with prenatal care in the Dominican Republic.

A high-impact communication campaign through social networks about the stigma and discrimination of people with HIV in Peru. Humanitarian responses linked to the COVID-19 pandemic for people with HIV and LGBT people in Argentina and Uruguay.

Community interventions to reach the populations most left behind in Brazil and Guyana.

The development and enactment of laws and regulations to protect the rights of people with HIV in Paraguay. The aforementioned interventions demonstrate that the fight against HIV and AIDS requires multidimensional approaches. Below we present the experiences and dimensions addressed in each of the promising practices.

Source: United Nations Population Fund

On December 1, the date of World AIDS Day 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) calls on leaders and citizens around the world to recognize and boldly combat the inequalities that hinder the progress towards ending AIDS by 2030.

WHO joins partners and communities around the world in commemorating World AIDS Day 2022 under the theme “Equality Now!” – a message that highlights the need to ensure that essential HIV services reach those who are most at risk and most in need, particularly children with HIV, key populations affected by HIV and their couples.

“With global solidarity and bold leadership, we can ensure that everyone gets the care they need,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “World AIDS Day offers an opportunity to reaffirm and refocus our common commitment to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.”

HIV remains a major public health problem affecting millions of people around the world, but our response risks falling short.

Of the 38 million people with HIV, 5.9 million who know they are carriers do not receive treatment.

Another 4 million people with HIV have not yet been diagnosed.

While 76% of adults overall were receiving antiretroviral treatment that allowed them to lead normal and healthy lives, only 52% (global average) of children with HIV had access to such treatment in 2021.

70% of new HIV infections occur among people who are marginalized and whose behavior is often criminalized.

Although transmission has generally decreased in Africa, there has not been a notable decline among men who have sex with men – a key population group – in the last 10 years.

Overlapping epidemics of monkeypox and HIV infection

The data available to the WHO show that among people with confirmed monkeypox, a high number (52%) were people with HIV. Global data reported to WHO suggest that people with monkeypox and untreated HIV infection appear to be at risk of contracting a more severe form of the disease than people without HIV.

The current response to monkeypox shows that transmission can be rapid through sexual networks and within marginalized population groups, but also that it can be prevented with community-led responses and open attitudes to combat stigma. Health and well-being can also be improved and lives saved.

Serving key population groups in the response to HIV

On this World AIDS Day, WHO recommends a refocus on the implementation of the WHO 2022 guidance to address the HIV-related and other related health needs of key populations and children .

“People must not be denied HIV services, no matter who they are or where they live, if we are to achieve health for all,” said Dr. Meg Doherty, Director of HIV, Hepatitis and STI programs at the WHO. “To end AIDS, we need to prevent new infections among children, remedy their lack of access to treatment, and dismantle structural obstacles and stigma and discrimination towards key populations in all countries as soon as possible. ».

With just eight years to go until 2030, the goal of ending AIDS as a global health threat, WHO calls for global solidarity and bold leadership from all sectors to get back on track for put an end to AIDS and, with it, put an end to new syndemics, such as the recent global outbreak of monkeypox.

Source: World Health Organization

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New EU Migration Plan, Same Rights Violations

The European Commission’s action plan on the Central Mediterranean, proposed on November 21, 2022 and endorsed by home affairs ministers a few days later, is another missed opportunity for the European Union to reset its myopic and harmful policies on this crucial migration route. The plan recycles the same repressive and ineffective focus on stopping people from entering Europe by increasing funding and support to often abusive governments in North Africa.

The plan doubles down on strengthening Libya’s capacity to police its borders. Support for the Libyan Coast Guard already facilitates interceptions of migrants at sea and their return to Libya where they face arbitrary detention and horrific abuses. The EU cynically justifies this support as part of the fight against smugglers and traffickers, despite knowing that the United Nations has pointed to evidence of collusion between the Libyan Coast Guard and traffickers and smugglers “attempting to profit from this system.”

The new plan ignores recommendations to re-introduce state-led, proactive search and rescue operations under the auspices of the EU and to establish a clear mechanism for predictable disembarkation in a place of safety of people rescued in the Central Mediterranean. The plan also fails to incorporate a process for relocation of people to other EU countries, to share responsibility and alleviate the pressure on the country of disembarkation.

Instead of dealing with EU member states’ refusals to undertake and coordinate the rescue of migrant boats in distress and to allocate safe places of safety to ships operated by nongovernmental rescue groups, the European Commission continues to constrain these organizations’ life-saving work at sea, referring to an alleged “need for a specific framework and guidelines for vessels.”

As rescue groups state repeatedly, international maritime law already establishes a legal framework for rescue at sea, which civilian rescue ships already respect. It is high time EU governments do the same.

Instead of recycling old approaches that failed to protect people and instead perpetuated suffering, the European Commission should scrap policies enabling human rights abuses and focus on strengthening the EU asylum and reception system, expanding the solidarity mechanism for allocating state responsibility, and establishing meaningful safe and legal pathways for migration.

Source: Human Rights Watch