37th CFS Plenary Session, 17-22 October 2011, Rome
The CFS is the United Nations' forum for reviewing policies concerning world food. It is the most inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all relevant stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition.
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22 July 2011 – An independent United Nations expert said today it is time to reconsider the economic sanctions imposed on Madagascar following the 2009 political crisis, warning that they are aggravating an already dire situation in which one in two inhabitants of the country is food insecure.
“All food security indicators are in the red,” Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, said at a press conference in the capital, Antananarivo, as he concluded his official mission to the Indian Ocean island nation.
12 August 2010 – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today warned that Madagascar is at risk of a crop-eating locust plague, potentially jeopardizing the livelihoods of 460,000 rural families.
An unknown number of immature swarms of Malagasy Migratory Locust have moved out of the country’s south-western corner, where they are usually contained, and have spread to the east and north.
FAO said today that a major air and ground control campaign lasting months is needed ahead of Madagascar’s upcoming rainy season, which kicks off in mid-October, to stave off a potential plague.
The country is currently in its dry and cool season, which is unsuitable for locust breeding, but the wet and hot rainy season, which lasts until spring, favours rapid reproduction.
ANTANANARIVO, June 18, 2010 –On June 17, 2010 the World Bank office in Madagascar released a collection of 31 policy notes aimed at fostering an agenda of economic recovery on the island. Under the direction of Jacques Morisset, Lead Economist, 31 authors produced about 400 pages of analytic notes, divided into 20 topics, which address different areas, including economic growth, governance, infrastructure, social services, and sustainable development.
Rome, 15 March 2010 – One year on after the political crisis erupted in Madagascar, a project funded by International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is working with small businesses to provide employment opportunities for young people in poor rural communities in the Indian Ocean country.
In addition to recent social and political turmoil, Madagascar has struggled with natural disasters, a growing population and an arduous food insecurity situation.
ANTANANARIVO, March 1, 2010 – Effective March 17, 2009, the World Bank’s operations in Madagascar have been guided by its Operational Policy OP 7.30, Dealing with de facto Governments, and no fund withdrawal requests have been processed since that date, with few exceptions (see below).
The spike in food prices of last year (2008) underscored what experts have been telling us for many years: the world's food systems are in crisis
