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Die Weltpremiere einer neuen Mercedes S-Klasse muss ordentlich gefeiert werden. Deshalb stieg gestern Abend im Stuttgarter Mercedes-Museum eine S-Klasse-Party mit erstklassigen Gästen wie Roger Federer oder Sänger Sam Smith.

Für ihn ist US-Präsident Donald Trump ein Gauner ohne Gewissen. Was Ex-Botschafter Tim Guldimann der Schweiz in der heutigen Weltlage rät, warum ein Regimesturz im Iran noch keine Freiheit bedeutet und was er von Serien über Diplomaten hält.

South Africa's sports minister Gayton McKenzie says "no formal decision" has been taken to relocate the 2026 Women's Africa Cup of Nations away from Morocco.

South Africa's sports minister Gayton McKenzie says "no formal decision" has been taken to relocate the 2026 Women's Africa Cup of Nations away from Morocco.

Am 2. Februar werden in ganz Frankreich Crêpes gebacken, um den «La Chandeleur»-Tag zu feiern. Alle lieben die heimischen Pfannkuchen, französischen Crêpes und Galettes oder amerikanischen Pancakes. Doch worin liegt eigentlich der Unterschied dieser Speisen?

Dimanche, la wilaya de Béchar a accueilli un événement historique pour l’économie algérienne. Le Président Abdelmadjid Tebboune a officiellement inauguré la ligne ferroviaire minière Ouest, […]

L’article Lancement de la ligne minière Gara Djebilet-Béchar : Tebboune s’exprime sur cette « étape historique » est apparu en premier sur .

RB Leipzig holt sich mit Brajan Gruda eine weitere Waffe für die Offensive ins Team. Der 21-Jährige wechselt auf Leihbasis von Brighton zum Bundesliga-Fünften

Die Vorschläge zur Reform des deutschen Sozialstaats erscheinen unspektakulär. Doch sie sind richtig, wenn andere Reformen hinzukommen – etwa bei der Bildung., Die Ergebnisse der Sozialstaatskommission sind weder revolutionär noch radikal. Aber sie bedeuten einen wichtigen Schritt in der Reformdebatte über den deutschen Sozialstaat. Denn die Empfehlungen zeigen einen Weg auf, wie der Sozialstaat gerechter, wirksamer und zukunftsfähiger gestaltet werden ...

Das Historische Museum Basel hat nach fünf Jahren seine Generalinventur abgeschlossen. Rund 435'000 Objekte in neun Depots und drei Ausstellungshäusern wurden vollständig erfasst, dokumentiert und konservatorisch überprüft.

Novak Djokovic verpasst an den Australian Open seinen 25. Grand-Slam-Titel. Die Niederlage gegen Carlos Alcaraz nagt stark am Serben. War es seine letzte Chance auf sein grosses letztes Ziel?

Confrontée à une baisse durable de la demande, l’industrie européenne des insectes se tourne désormais vers la commande publique pour tenter d’assurer sa survie. Longtemps présentés comme une alternative durable aux protéines animales conventionnelles, les produits à base d’insectes peinent toujours à s’imposer auprès des consommateurs.

The post L’industrie des insectes en quête d’un soutien public pour enrayer son déclin appeared first on Euractiv FR.

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2025 - EP

Dschungelcamperin Ariel ist fest überzeugt, dass die Erde eine Scheibe ist. Ihre Mitcamper sind erstaunt, weil sie nicht die Einzige in ihrer Familie ist, die das glaubt. Dass dem nicht so ist, hat Nikolaus Kopernikus bereits aufgezeigt.

Mittelfeldspieler Mikel Merino wird Arsenal in den kommenden Wochen fehlen. Wie Sky berichtet, wollen die Gunners nun als Ersatz Sandro Tonali von Newcastle verpflichten.

Egy busz ellen intézett orosz támadásban legalább 15 bányász meghalt, 15 másik pedig megsebesült a Dnyipropetrovszki terület Pavlohrad városának külterületén vasárnap – jelentette a legnagyobb ukrán energetikai magánvállalat, a DTEK.

Der HCD knackt die Schallmauer, Lemieux macht seinem Namen alle Ehre. ZSC-Kukan spricht Klartext und lässt im Subtext eine Warnung mitschwingen. Und Hardy Häman Aktell? Trifft oder sitzt. Die Liga im Wochenrückblick.

Der FC Zürich hat einen neuen Goalie. Und Silas Huber ist gekommen, um zu bleiben. Auch wenn Trainer Dennis Hediger dies nicht explizit sagt, deuten alle Indizien darauf hin.

Funken, Flammen und Rauch: Ein Flugzeug der Nasa muss nach einem technischen Defekt ohne Fahrwerk landen. Beim Vorfall nahe Houston wird zum Glück niemand verletzt.

A developed Africa starts with nutrition in safe hands. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Feb 2 2026 (IPS)

Hunger shadowed Mercy Lung’aho’s childhood, fueling her campaign to promote nutrition as a foundation for Africa’s development.

As lead for the Food Security, Nutrition and Health Program at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), this certified nutritionist and researcher, with more than 20 years of championing development, is advocating for an integrated approach combining agri-food and health systems for food and nutrition security on the continent.

In a continent where one in three children are stunted, providing nutritious food is urgent for the development of Africa. For Lungaho, nutrition research is everything.

“I want to leave a legacy of a nourished Africa,” Lung’aho says, emphasizing that at IITA, nutrition is not a buzzword but the core of its programs across Africa.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), approximately 307 million people in Africa were undernourished in 2024. Malnutrition is the lack of correct and adequate nutrients, like vitamins, proteins, and minerals, needed to stay healthy and functional. Signs of malnutrition include stunted growth, wasting and being underweight.

“Regardless of how you define it, nutrition begins with what we eat,” she says. “Health begins with what we eat. Agriculture produces what we eat and it is really important that one of the lenses that agriculture and agricultural research have is nutrition.”

Despite its vast arable land and abundant water resources,  Africa  is a net food importer. Africa is off the mark on SDG2 and SDG3 relating to zero hunger, health and wellbeing. Projects indicate that nearly 60% of all chronically undernourished people will be in Africa by that time. It gets worse; Africa is the only region where the number of children under five suffering from chronic malnutrition is increasing.

Mercy Lung’aho, International Institute for Tropical Agriculture’s (IITA) Food Security, Nutrition and Health Programme lead.

Excerpts:

IPS: What  breakthroughs in nutrition research have you made at IITA and what has been their  impact on food security?

Lung’aho: One of the things that we advocate as IITA is food safety. If food is not safe, it is not food. There are now several products that help ensure food safety, like Aflasafe, which inhibits the growth of aflatoxin (a toxin produced by fungi), and farmers use it when they plant either soybeans, groundnuts, or maize. Aflatoxin is one of the most poisonous things in our food—it stunts the growth of children and can lead to cancers like liver cancer. In my country, Kenya, we have had episodes where acute toxicity from aflatoxin has been fatal.

There is one product I am really excited about. Our breeders have also worked on provitamin A maize and it is orange in color. The grain inhibits the growth of aflatoxin. Provitamin A maize is not just to reduce vitamin A deficiency, which causes night blindness—it is also coming in as a safety measure for populations and also reduces exposure to aflatoxins in communities. With a grant from Harvest Plus, we are doing a study in northern Nigeria, where we are now assessing real-life evidence in communities that have eaten ProVitamin A maize and whose exposure to aflatoxins has been limited.

Not only do we provide nourishment to the population, but we also ensure the safety of the food system.

How does IITA integrate traditional knowledge with modern nutrition science to enhance crop quality?

Lung’aho: I think IITA is one of the few centers that value consumer research. For example, the tricot methodology (triadic comparisons of technologies) is a participatory research approach where farmers act as researchers to test and identify the most suitable agricultural technologies, such as crop varieties, for their performance under local conditions.

It involves comparing small sets of three technologies at a time in “triads” and collecting data on their farms under their normal practices.  We don’t call the consumer a ‘beneficiary,’ but a core designer. We view farmers and consumers as integral members of the team, understanding that their work is a collaborative effort. We always try to understand the consumers’ perspective first before we say we have understood a problem. We ensure that their voices are heard and their opinions are included even in some of our methodologies. We then go to the farmers and inform them of our findings, compare what is available on the market with what consumers want, and ask them for their opinions. Such feedback is integrated into the research.

How do you measure the success of nutrition integration interventions in farming communities?

Lung’aho: We have globally recognized indicators for measuring impact, such as the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W)—a population-level indicator of diet diversity validated for women aged 15–49 and the proportion of the population who can afford a healthy diet.

I look for evidence in the community to see if the interventions are effective, and I observe food availability in the market. Working in communities and around lunchtime, you can see women cooking, and you can see fires in homes—but you have communities where at lunchtime nobody is cooking and in the evening, families have nothing to eat.

When you go to economists, they look at impact; they prioritize the indicators—that’s what they look at.

I am very practical. I know hunger not just by name, but because I’ve slept hungry. There was no food at home and we would go to bed hungry.

For me, the presence of food in the home and in the market is evidenced by seeing children at schools during lunchtime with packed food, even if it consists of a small portion of ugali and vegetables—this indicates that we are making progress. We are moving the needle. However, the high-level evidence, which examines the SDGs and evaluates our progress, indicates that more work is needed.

How has IITA leveraged technology and data analytics to enhance nutrition outcomes in agricultural projects?

Lung’aho: In IITA, data is currency. We generate a lot of data and we have a lead for data who is very interested in making sure that that data doesn’t sit on shelves, but we are able to learn from past data and new data is talking to past data to anticipate the future.

So for that, we’re leveraging a lot of artificial intelligence and machine learning. We are using systems thinking and systems dynamics  that look at the whole system rather than its elements alone.

How can systems work better? I think we are among the first institutions in the world to really ask the question of how artificial intelligence and machine learning can work better for diets and nutrition in Africa.

There is a need to standardize tools so that we are collecting the same data—not comparing apples and oranges—as well as the harmonization of tools and indicators. Countries need to create a nutrition data ecosystem. Governments will respond by saying, “You (already) have so much data. Why are you not using that?” If data cannot communicate with each other, we are left in the dark. Having that ecosystem will show countries why data is important and how they can leverage existing data and new data to move forward.

Data has to be in the forefront of what we collect to understand nutrition problems. If you want Africa to grow, nutrition is the answer, and I’m the number one advocate. This is a call to action to all African countries. We need to take nutrition seriously. In our generation, we must leave a legacy of a nourished Africa.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Vier Mietüberbauungen in Zumikon ZH werden abgerissen – 33 Mietparteien müssen raus. Betroffene Familien und Seniorinnen wissen nicht, wohin. Dafür sollen 64 neue Wohnungen entstehen.