The UN's Central Emergency Response Fund dispersed US$485 million to projects in 49 countries and territories in 2012 – the highest amount since its inception.

The Global Overview collates information from a range of sources and displays it in a manner that allows for quick comparison of different humanitarian crises.

The Global Overview is a weekly update that collates humanitarian information from a wide range of sources. Its primary objective is to rapidly inform humanitarian decision makers by presenting a summary of major humanitarian crises, both recent and protracted.

In Central African Republic, an armed faction of the Seleka rebel coalition attacked the northern town of Sido in an apparent breach of the recent peace accord; 1,100,000 people estimated affected.

A global review of the literature with a focus on the application of integrated pest and vector management in East Africa and Uganda

SG/SM/14631
ENV/DEV/1326

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to the International Conference on Food Security in Drylands, in Qatar on 14 November:

I am pleased to send greetings to the International Conference on Food Security in Drylands, and I thank His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and the Qatar National Food Security Programme for organizing it. I also thank Qatar for hosting the forthcoming 18th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Atlas of health and climate launches new collaboration between public health and meteorological communities

Atlas provides maps, tables and graphs showing links between health and climate

Geneva, 29 October 2012 (WHO/WMO) – As the world’s climate continues to change, hazards to human health are increasing. The Atlas of Health and Climate, published today jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), illustrates some of the most pressing current and emerging challenges.

JOHANNESBOURG, 25 octobre 2012 (IRIN) - Dans les pays africains, des chercheurs tentent de trouver des moyens d'améliorer la production de blé nationale afin de faire face à des conditions sous-optimales et à une concurrence internationale féroce.

JOHANNESBURG, 24 October 2012 (IRIN) - Researchers in Africa are identifying ways to improve domestic wheat production in the face of sub-optimal conditions and stiff international competition.

For example, in Somalia - a country better known for conflict and famine than agricultural research - postgraduate volunteers are exploring ways to reduce the country’s wheat import bill, a subject discussed in one of several research abstracts released at the recent Wheat for Food Security in Africa conference in Addis Ababa.