- Food security conditions across the region are steadily improving with the increasingly widespread harvests and large shipments of rainy season crops to markets since October.

- Nominal prices for different crops are falling in production zones but are still high in deficit areas which are still awaiting an influx of commercial trade. This is contributing to the moderate levels of food insecurity found mainly in the northeastern Sahel and among poor urban households after last year's severe food deficits.

- In general, food availability is above-average

The report identifies the increasing opportunities for women in politics that have emerged since the conflict ended and shows how other accompanying trends affect their greater participation.

Sixty-fifth General Assembly
Fifth Committee
27th Meeting (Night)

Vote Required on Resolution funding 29 Special Political Missions; Recommends Funds for UN Women, Extra Finance for UN Assistance to Sudan Referendum

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today wrapped up the main part of a sixty-fifth session that aimed to boost the Organization's efficiency by overhauling how tens of thousands of staff around the globe are hired, trained and paid, while continuing to modernize its outdated information and communications technology system.

Speaking at the seminar, organized by the Sierra Leone Environmental Protection Agency (SLEPA) with support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Southern African Institute for Environmental Assessment (SAIEA), the Minister for Information,

Rotary International News -- 20 December 2010

For the Rotary Club of Fishers, Indiana, USA, it wasn't difficult to decide where and how to help the global community become a better place.

"Sierra Leone is [near] the bottom of the list of needy countries," says Fishers Rotarian Thomas Branum Jr. "One of our members had been to Sierra Leone and said this could be a place where we could do something really well."

One in five children in the West African nation die before age 5, according to UNICEF, many from waterborne diseases

Security Council
6455th Meeting (PM)

The international community must apply innovative thinking to reduce tensions generated by critical election processes in West Africa, Said Djinnit, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for the United Nations Office in the subregion told the Security Council today.

Reporting on largely positive developments in the subregion in a briefing to Council members, he said: "UNOWA (United Nations Office for West Africa) will remain engaged in supporting

Sixty-fifth General Assembly
Plenary
68th Meeting (AM)

Three Other Resolutions Concern Interreligious, Intercultural Dialogue; Cooperation with Portuguese-Speaking Countries, Organization of Islamic Conference

Recognizing ongoing serious concern about the direct link between the "rough diamonds" trade and armed conflict and the activities of rebel movements aimed at undermining legitimate Governments, the General Assembly today reaffirmed its strong and continuing support for the Kimberley Process and its related certification scheme

This accelerated initiative, which launched nationally on November 25, aims to achieve universal coverage (defined as one net for every two people) in net distribution, with an 80% usage

Sixty-fifth General Assembly
Fifth Committee
22nd Meeting (AM)

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took up the Secretariat's review of the first year of the 2010-2011 budget cycle, an annual exercise that re-evaluated budget requirements for the current two-year biennium downwards by $36.5 million, or less than 1 per cent, to $4.57 billion.

When introducing the report, Assistant Secretary-General and United Nations Controller Jun Yamazaki said the performance report did not include another $35.7 million in net requirements that resulted