The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, welcomed today the collective commitment and resolve of the four Central Asian countries and other states in the region to improve legal procedures and strengthen cooperation to protect the rights of migrants and asylum-seekers during mixed migration movements.

The Eurasian Food Security Network has just been launched with the first online consultation "Food Security issues in the Eurasian region: major challenges and G8/G20 initiatives in relation with the regional situation".

The Eurasian Food Security Network was set up for the Eurasian Center for Food Security (ECFS) as a result of the collaboration between the ECFS, the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

Overview

Around 6.5 million people were newly displaced, almost twice as many as the 3.5 million during 2011. The conflicts in Syria and DRC were responsible for around half of the new displacements.

One target of the Millennium Development Goals is to halve the proportion of the population without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. The world met the water goal five years ahead of schedule, but access to sanitation still lags, hurting both human health and economies. In World Bank client countries, access to improved water sources increased from 73 percent in 1990 to to 86.4 percent in 2010, and access to improved sanitation from 42 percent to 56.3 percent.

ALMATY, 14 March 2013 - Regional cooperation on disaster risk reduction in Central Asia and the South Caucasus received a major boost this week as representatives from eight countries consulted with the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) on a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction.

A high ranking authority of Azerbaijan Custom authority came to Afghanistan. The delegation met Afghanistan minister of finance, DM of customs and revenues and other Afghan custom officials.

In a press conference that held in the deputy ministry of customs and revenues on 27 February Azerbaijan delegation promised to help Afghanistan in customs section.

As a part of the "Struggle against avertable loss of sight" campaign, Azerbaijan International Development Agency (AIDA) of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) have sent a humanitarian aid to Ubaru, Libya .

The campaign is the continuation of a similar action implemented in Burkina-Faso and Chad on December 12, 2012. During the action 1,165 local residents passed free check-up, in addition, successful cataract surgery was carried for 200 patients with partial or complete loss of vision.

Key messages

•Cereal production reached an exceptionally high level of 2.8 million tonnes in 2012, due to favourable weather conditions and government incentives, which represented an increase of 14% compared to 2011.

•Food prices increased by 1.4% between September and December 2012. The price of bread and potato increased but remained below last year’s levels.

•The prevalence of poverty continued to decrease in 2012 (6.0%) and reached a minimum in the decade.

•Cereal imports in 2012 were 16% higher in volume than in 2011.