Environment and Sustainable Development - United Nations ...

toxicological, regulatory and nutritional experts to develop
a process for reviewing the human safety and suitability
attributes of specific foods and food ingredients offered to
WFP for use in its global feeding programmes. While most
of the food distributed (1.47 million metric tons in 2001)
has been in the form of raw commodities, increasingly
WFP is being offered and is distributing foods that have
been processed to improve nutritional, storage and other
attributes. This group will advise WFP on the safety and
suitability of foods it is offered as well as identify research
gaps that prevent optimal effectiveness and efficiency in
meeting specific programme goals.
Harmonization of Nutrient-Based Dietary Standards –
While national governments often name expert groups to
promulgate nutrient-based dietary standards, no global
consensus exists regarding approaches for deriving specific
recommendations. The leads to discrepancies that create
problems for health, trade, and other national and
international authorities – particularly those in developing
countries that lack the infrastructures available to more
developed economies. FNP is leading a global review of
potential approaches for harmonizing nutrient-based
dietary standards, and will commission papers that serve as
the core documentation for a jointly sponsored
UNU/FAO/WHO consultation, scheduled for 2004.
International Growth References for Preadolescent
School-Age Children – FNP is preparing for a global
review of the feasibility of developing international
anthropometric standards for school-age preadolescents.
This review is motivated by an increasing worldwide
prevalence of childhood obesity, perceived inadequacy of
present references, and the desirability of harmonizing
references. UNU will join with WHO and FAO in planning
and executing this review, partial funding for which has
been obtained from the United States government, in
January 2003.
Integrated Land Management in Dry
Areas
The UN estimates that some 70 percent of the 5.2 billion
hectares of drylands used for agriculture worldwide have
already degraded, impacting a quarter-billion or more
people. Furthermore, the worldwide average area of arable
land per person fell by as much as 25 per cent in the last
quarter of the twentieth century; this has serious
implications for food security. The impact of land
degradation on ecosystems is already apparent in the
destruction of biodiversity resources.
A closely related group of projects has the objective of
assisting developing countries in dry areas to manage their
land resources while achieving sustainable utilization of
the water and biodiversity resources contained therein.
Integrated management of natural resources and
development of multidisciplinary approaches are keys to
achieving these objectives. The projects are implemented
through a network of researchers and institutions working
together in project activities and research programmes.
One of the projects, Sustainable Management of
Marginal Drylands, reached the conclusion of its
development phase in 2002. A project management
meeting, held in September in Cairo, approved a
systematic project approach that aims, inter alia, at creating
a coordinated synergistic network of study sites. The
project on Traditional Water Management Technologies in
Dry Areas, which aims at helping to develop water
management solutions that duly consider local socioeconomic
conditions and are acceptable to local
communities, also completed one of its three ongoing subprojects,
on irrigation systems in Oman. Work in the
Master’s Degree Programme on Integrated Land
Management in Dry Areas is progressing with
arrangements for granting a degree in Integrated Land
Management, in collaboration with the Institut des Régions
Arides in Tunisia and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to
be formalized in early 2003.
Freshwater Resources
As an initial contribution to preparations for the
International Year of Freshwater 2003, UNU in
cooperation with other UN agencies held an international
conference in Kenya on “Sustainable Development of
Headwater Resources.” This conference, held at the United
States International University (USIU) – Africa in Nairobi,
was jointly organized by UNU, UNESCO, United Nations
Centre for Human Settlements (UN-HABITAT), UNEP
and USIU. Participants discussed special problems related
to headwater environments, which are the ultimate sources
of water for all river systems and important reserves of
natural biodiversity and special habitats. The conference
adopted a declaration affirming that greater emphasis on
management of headwater resources is essential to
reaching sustainable development goals.
UNU is contributing to preparations for the Third
World Water Forum in Japan in March 2003.
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