The head of the UN World Food Programme has warned that the rise in basic food costs could continue until 2010.

Josette Sheeran blamed soaring energy and grain prices, the effects of climate change and demand for biofuels. Continue Reading »

Concord Times (Freetown)
6 November 2007

By Abdul Karim Koroma
Freetown
Many Sierra Leoneans may be surprised to learn that their fellow countrymen and women are living a life of poverty as refugees in the United States of America, but that is the reality, says Universal Human Rights International, a Boston-based organization. Continue Reading »

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
1 November 2007
Johannesburg
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said an independent UN human rights expert’s description of biofuel production as a “crime against humanity” was regrettable.

Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on The Right to Food, said in a press briefing in New York on 26 October, “It is a crime against humanity to convert agriculturally productive soil into soil which produces foodstuffs that will be burned into [as] biofuel.” He called for a five-year moratorium on biofuel production because the conversion of maize, wheat and sugar into fuels was driving up the prices of food, land and water. Continue Reading »

I am pleased to announce that the Global Alliance for Community Empowerment (GACE) is now officially recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit organization. GACE is the sister organization to Alaffia. Our mission is to empower African communities through the advancement of fair trade, education, sustainable living, and gender equity. To find out more about the work we do, support our work, or get involved, please visit our website at http://www.empowermentalliance.org .

Oxfam International (Oxford) 9 October 2007

Five ex-military leaders and war correspondents, including Janine di Giovanni and former UN commanders in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Haiti, will today urge the United Nations to push for more stringent controls on the international arms trade. Continue Reading »