The 2008 episode of food price explosion, political turmoil, and human suffering revealed important flaws in the current global food architecture. This UNU-WIDER paper argues that four failures in market functioning and policymaking need to be addressed.

In September, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. e.H. Erich J. Plate retired from the Advisory Committee of UNU-EHS. He had been a member since the inauguration of the committee in 2003, when UNU-EHS was founded.

This BRIGG paper provides an assessment of the new European sub-regional groups. It explores why and how sub-regionalism has proliferated in Europe since the 1990s, analyses what functions sub-regional groups perform, and evaluates their significance.

The co-winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics, Elinor Ostrom, has been associated with UNU-WIDER for more than a decade. She a contributor to the UNU-WIDER research project on Land Distribution, Land Reform and Economic Growth and more recently worked on the 2004 UNU-WIDER conference on “Unlocking Human Potential”.

As part of the UNU’s continued focus on Africa, Prof. Mohamed H.A. Hassan and Prof. Joseph O. Malo delivered lectures on “Science and Technology: The African Perspectives” at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo.

In early October, UNU Rector Osterwalder toured the headquarters of Shimadzu Corp. in Kyoto. Shimadzu, a producer of chemical analysis equipment, has been a long-term supporter of the UNU project “Environmental Monitoring and Governance in the Asian Coastal Hydrosphere“.

Day 1 — Monday, 28 September 2009

Over 300 people gathered in U Thant Hall at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo on Monday, 28 September, for day 1 of the 2009 UNU/UNESCO international conference on “Africa and Globalization: Learning from the Past, Enabling a Better Future”. Japanese government representatives Tetsuro Fukuyama (MOFA), and Masaharu Nakagawa (MEXT) offered opening…