Posted 30 June 1999
A free daily news service on the United Nations, global affairs and key international issues, is now available on the Web. UN Wire is sponsored by the United Nations Foundation and its sister organization, Better World Fund, and summarizes news and information on a wide range of issues, including women, children and population, health, the environment and sustainable development, humanitarian aid, and peacekeeping and security. The service also offers links to full-text, audio, video and additional Internet sources of information.
The site has links to information on the work of the UN entities and intergovernmental and treaty bodies that deal with the advancement and empowerment of women and about international instruments on women's rights.
RAFI is dedicated to the conservation and sustainable improvement of agricultural biodiversity, and to the socially responsible development of technologies useful to rural societies. RAFI is concerned about the loss of genetic diversity - especially in agriculture - and about the impact of intellectual property rights on agriculture and food security.
IPGRI works to strengthen the conservation and use of plant genetic resources, in partnership with other organizations, undertaking research, training and the provision of scientific and technical advice and information. IPGRI has a world-wide mandate to help stem the loss of plant species and varieties.
CGIAR's mission is to contribute to food security and poverty eradication in developing countries through research, partnership, capacity building and policy support. The CGIAR is an informal association of fifty-eight public and private sector members that supports a network of sixteen international agricultural research centres.
This site contains information on project experiences, methods and lessons learned of African, European and Near East NGOs, research institutes and information centres working with and for rural women.
FAO's corporate Website contains comprehensive information on gender issues related to rural and agricultural development, including fisheries and forestry.
This information note underlines the need for an understanding of gender-based differences for the accurate evaluation of the consequences - and chances of success - of any project aimed at sustainable forest management.
This SD Dimensions Special presents key chapters from "Human Nature", an independent study prepared for FAO by the Rural Advancement Foundation International. Until recently, agriculture and nature conservation were often seen as being in opposition. Today, there is growing recognition that food security and the conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biological diversity are inextricably linked. The Special covers biodiversity in crops, plants, farm animals, forests, fish and aquatic life, and soil.
An independent study prepared by RAFI for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, by Hope Shand, December 1997, 96 pp.
The book provides an introduction to the topic of agricultural biodiversity, with chapters assessing the current situation for each major sector: crop genetic resources, farm animal diversity, fish and aquatic life, forests, soil biodiversity and microbial genetic resources. It concludes with a discussion of outstanding policy issues that must be addressed by policymakers and global civil society on the eve of the new millennium.
Women in Pacific Island countries play an important role in agricultural and natural resource management and in contributing to food and livelihood security. Yet, programmes and policies related to agriculture, fisheries, forestry, natural resource management and rural enterprises do not always take women's roles sufficiently into account, largely due to a scarcity of relevant gender-differentiated and sex-segregated information.
This report examines existing policies in the areas of agriculture, natural resource management, fisheries, forestry and rural enterprises in three Pacific Island countries, namely Fiji, Vanuatu and Western Samoa.
For a copy of this publication, contact: Revathi Balakrishnan, Women-in-development Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, 39 Phara Atit Road, Bangkok 10200, Thailand (e-mail: revathi.balakrishnan@fao.org)
Based on fact sheets prepared by FAO's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, this SD Dimensions Special provides a general profile, plus an analysis of women's roles in agriculture, environment, rural production and food security, in 10 countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Lao PDR,Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The original fact sheets are also available as full-colour PDF files.