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UN Lebanon hosted, on July 22, its first virtual dialogue on Food Systems in Lebanon under the patronage of Deputy Special Coordinator, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, Najat Rochdi and Lebanese MP Inaya Ezzeddine. Organized by UNIC Beirut, WFP, FAO, RCO, ESCWA and UNIDO, the dialogue brought together around 90 participants for a lively and constructive discussion on how to make the food system in Lebanon safer, stronger, and more equitable.

An ancient temple in India and a “cultural landscape” in Spain have become two of the latest sites to be registered on the UN’s prestigious World Heritage List. 

Negotiations began on Monday to approve a UN science report which will anchor high level summits later this year, charged with boosting climate action worldwide.

Inefficient global food production is at the root of a huge rise in hunger as well as one-third of all emissions and 80 per cent of biodiversity loss, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned, in a call to all countries to transform food systems to speed up sustainable development. 

The public water system in Lebanon is “on life support” and could collapse at any moment, putting 71 per cent of the population, or more than four million people, at immediate risk of losing access to safe supply, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, warned on Friday. 

Most water pumping will gradually cease in the next four to six weeks, the agency estimated, due to the escalating economic crisis and shortages in funding and supplies, such as chlorine and spare parts. 

Over the past year, Lebanon has suffered from a devastating, continuing economic and financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and an explosion that killed over 200 people, injured thousands more and caused massive damage in Beirut’s commercial centre.

The role of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in promoting development has become “even more critical” as a way of guiding and informing the COVID-19 pandemic response worldwide, Collen Vixen Kelapile said on Friday, speaking for the first time as the UN body’s president. 

Farmers, especially women and indigenous people, work tirelessly to put food on our tables. UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed met on Saturday women producers at a farmers’ market in Circo Massimo, Rome, ahead of the Food Systems Pre-Summit taking place next week.

Fadia, a Lebanese mother of two children who have exchanged time to learn for time to work, shares how life has changed for her children. Lebanon’s increasing cycle of poverty is robbing children of their childhood and their future.

Girls, boys, and families in Lebanon face multiple vulnerabilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tragedy of the Beirut explosions, and the further social and economic deterioration facing the country since late 2019.

Thank you so much, and always a pleasure being here in Moscow to be able to meet with you (Russian Foreign Minister Mr. Sergey Lavrov) and your team here. Let me also start by saying how much we appreciate the strong support that we receive from you and from Russia to the implementation of our mandate, as you rightly said Security Council resolution 2254.