A Somali woman waits in line for food with her baby. (UN Photo

Speculation on lands and commodities, the boom of biofuels, agricultural and aid policies set up by rich countries and multilateral organizations and the climate change exacerbates the food crisis all over the world, as Social Watch Report 2012 makes apparent. Those conclusions find new prove with two more recent studies, one prepared by Friends of the Earth Europe and other by Save the Children and Oxfam.

Postal strike in Vancouver. (Photo: Guilhem Vellut/Flickr/CC)

Federal cutbacks announced in the 2010 and 2011 budgets will result in more than 60,000 job losses, says a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA, one of the focal points of Social Watch in that country). Any additional cuts in the upcoming federal budget would result in even more job losses.

CAP president S.M. Mohamed Idris showing a huge gourd. (Source: New Strait Times)

Do you want to know the secret of growing big and healthy vegetables without a drop of chemical fertiliser? The Consumers Association of Penang's (CAP, one of the focal points of Social Watch in Malaysia) teaches you how to do it at its organic garden on Jalan Mesjid Negeri.

Using its own vermicompost and fertilisers, CAP has produced bottle gourds weighing 4kg and measuring 46cm within 40 days. "Panchakavya organic growth promoters and earthworm fertilisers were used to grow these bottle gourds," said CAP education officer N.V. Subbarow.

Project Rakeeb's symbol.

The third round of the elections in Egypt was a meaningful democratic exercise, with relatively few reports of violence or intimidation. The main irregularities were the widespread active political campaigning in and around polling centers, which resulted in sporadic violence, and the denial of access to observers, according to Project Rakeeb, a watchdog program run by two civil society organizations.

In Delhi, Jangpura Extension. (Photo: April May/Flickr/CC)

The people have been facing different kinds of deprivation and inequality in the Indian cities, according to a UNESCO study on the India urban policies reported by Governance Now analysis portal. “There are inequality, ghettoisation, apartheid and segregation across the cities in India,” said Miloon Kothari, former UN special rapporteur on adequate housing.