Los gobiernos tienen la responsabilidad jurídica de velar por el derecho a la alimentación de todos los seres humanos. Sin embargo, hay mil millones de personas que pasan hambre en el mundo y más millones cuya seguridad alimentaria se encuentra en peligro. La Cumbre Mundial sobre la Seguridad Alimentaria de 2009 ofrece una oportunidad única para desarrollar un sistema de gobernanza de la seguridad alimentaria mundial que salve la brecha entre las distintas visiones y los intereses enfrentados acerca de los mecanismos internacionales políticos, financieros y técnicos.

Con la intención de proveer insumos al debate global, este número del OBSERVATORIO del Derecho a la Alimentación y la Nutrición se enfoca en la el tema: ¿Quién gobierna el Sistema Alimentario Mundial?

Aproximadamente 1,6 mil millones de personas –más del 25 por ciento de la población mundial – dependen de los recursos forestales para la consecución de los medios de vida y la mayor parte de ellos (1,2 mil millones) utiliza los árboles en las explotaciones agrícolas para generar alimentos y dinero en efectivo.

In today’s China, about 220 million rural migrant workers are on the move – this is more than two thirds of the US population – and their number is set to increase in the course of the country’s urbanisation process. At a rate of 47 percent, still below global average, and against the backdrop of a marked rural-urban divide, urbanisation is not only an effect of rapid economic development, but also forms part of the Chinese government’s economic development strategy.

Labour migration, primarily to Côte d’Ivoire, masked the high rate of natural population growth in Burkina Faso for many years. However, since a political crisis began in this neighbouring country in late 1999, many Burkinabe have returned home. This posed major challenges, especially for rural areas. In the south of the country, shrewd population policy and appropriate rural development programmes have been e? ective in meeting these challenges.

Establishing a rational forest policy is a difficult task for many countries. One of the reasons for this is that different policy sectors - such as energy policy, foreign trade policy, are closely linked to forest policy and the interests of a multitude of actors need to be accommodated. Moreover, the unregulated exploitation of forests promises large profits. 

Every year, 13 million hectares of forest are lost worldwide; that is an area the size of Austria and Switzerland combined. 90 percent of this deforestation involves tropical forests. Forest loss has devastating effects on the climate and is the source of between 15 and 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. If global warming is to be kept below the critical threshold of two degrees Celsius, forest loss and degradation must be halted without delay

In January 2011 the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) launched an online knowledge resource offering researchers and opinion leaders easy access to research and information on Africa. The Africa Portal will establish a forum to share important insights on Africa with policymakers and the general public, explained SAIIA.

Hardest hit by desertification is Sub-Saharan Africa, where poverty is more widespread, preparedness for catastrophe is lower, and means for adequately coping with the phenomenon are very weak; two thirds of the arable land will be lost by 2025.The subcontinent needs improved integrated initiatives on local, national und multinational level for a sustainable natural resources management. Environmental Information systems can increase awareness and throw light on decision making processes on the complexity of desertification badly needed by most African countries.

Despite ambitious desertification control programmes, the area of desertified land has expanded continuously since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, with increasingly serious impacts on important industrial and settlement areas. Only in the new millennium is a reversal of this trend in sight.

In the ten years since it came into being, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has had little or no effect on the further encroachment of deserts. More than 80 countries have submitted National Action Programmes to combat desertification, but they appear to lack the financial and political commitment to implement them. What are the causes behind the UNCCD's weakness? How can the Convention be incorporated more effectively and efficiently into the architecture of international development?

People-centred early warning systems empower communities to prepare for and confront the power of natural hazards. However, the efficiency of such systems is to be measured in terms of lives saved and reduction in losses, which is directly related to the execution of an anticipated response by the people and institutions once a warning is issued.This paper addresses traditional views on early warning systems, and what it takes to transform them into efficient, people-centred systems.