Issues

The purchase and lease of vast tracts of land from poor, developing countries by wealthier nations and international private investors has led to debate about whether land investment is a tool for development or force of displacement.

The Western model of creating parks and wildlife reserves – supposed to protect biodiversity and critical habitats – has forcibly removed local communities from their ancestral lands and driven widespread human rights abuses across the world. While this model of “Fortress Conservation” is most heavily funded by western governments and institutions, time has come for a radical shift to respect the land and lives of local and Indigenous communities and allow them to sustainably manage biodiverse areas – as they have for millennium.

Large-scale industrial agriculture remains the most touted solution to global hunger in development discourse. However, an increasing number of reports and research, endorse agroecological approaches that prioritize smallholder crop production to successfully meet the challenges of climate change and hunger.

Disparities in social, political, and economic outcomes in countries around the world are rooted in varied systemic problems ranging from racism, to exploitative labor and migration policies, to the predominance of corporate monopolies.

While urgent and radical action is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address the impacts of climate change, wealthy countries and corporations are using the crisis to push false solutions that further deprive communities in the Global South of their land and natural resources.

Reports, briefs, and media around the activities of the World Bank.

Taxpayer-funded international aid can be critical to help resource-poor countries, especially when facing crisis and situations of war or natural disasters. However, aid is frequently used to pursue foreign policy objectives and support domestic interests, such as those of US agribusinesses in the case of food aid.

The food price spike of 2007-2008 pushed the total number of hungry people to over one billion — 1/6th of the world's population. Since then, the volatility of food prices continues to impact hunger and poverty trends, especially in low-income food deficit countries.