United Nations agencies have a long history of leading work on establishing global human nutrient requirements. Dietary protein contributes to metabolism and homeostasis and plays an essential role ...in human health for growth, maintenance, reproduction, and immune function (or immunity). Accurately defining the quantity and quality of protein provided by foods and diets required to meet human nutritional needs is essential to achieving global environmental and nutrition goals. There have been many scientific developments related to protein quality over the past decades, with the preferred method being the scoring approach that relates the capacity of protein sources to provide an adequate amount and proportion of nitrogen and indispensable amino acids (IAAs) in a bioavailable form (often referred to as digestibility). Questions surrounding the scoring approach and IAA metabolic availability have been discussed during past and recent expert consultations. Recently, an Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/International Atomic Energy Agency technical meeting, held in Vienna, 10-13 October, 2022, reviewed and updated evidence and related methods on protein requirements and protein quality assessment and designed a framework for the development of a Protein Digestibility Database to aid dialog on the evaluation of protein quality and protein sufficiency in different populations. The database should be a living document and align with national food compositional databases.
...about 65% of the population lack access to health care and 70–80% of hospitals in conflict-affected areas are no longer functional. Acute malnutrition affects 8·4 million people—mainly children ...younger than 5 years and pregnant and lactating women. TOPSHOT - Newly displaced Congolese prepare to spend the night in the small houses they build next to the Bulengo camp a few kilometres from the centre of Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, on February 16, 2024.
This study examined the factors that influence local community residents' support for the Pitons Management Area (PMA) as a World Heritage Site and their support for Sustainable Tourism Development. ...Community Attachment, Environmental Attitudes and Involvement in PMA were hypothesized as independent variables. Results of a structural equation modeling analysis using 319 resident samples suggested that Community Attachment positively influences their support behaviors, and Environmental Attitudes indirectly influence the support behaviors through Perceptions about PMA. Level of Involvement in the PMA was not found to have any significant relationships. The notable lack of involvement of residents presented critical implications for the sustainability of the site. Copyright Elsevier Ltd.
Collaborative science has become a ‘gold standard’ in sustainability science, to address increasingly complex socio-environmental challenges and knowledge divides. Inequalities shaping research ...collaborations (RCs) however remain unexplored in the science-policy interface. To address this gap, we carry out a critical discourse analysis of texts by international policy and research actors engaged in the global discourse on science for sustainability. We examine which narratives of RC they mediate, and how these address inequalities related to RC. Our study shows that documents of United Nations bodies primarily mediate a deficit narrative, with focus on a lack of resources and innovation capacity in ‘less developed’ countries. The alternative transformation narrative of RC mediated by reports of UNESCO and other science-policy institutions implementing science for the SDGs offers a more complex picture, which accounts for epistemic inequalities and frames RC as essential to address global challenges. The latter narrative holds most potential for change yet emerges with a varying prevalence, which we explain by institutional contexts and disciplinary diversity of experts. We find a disparity in the visibility of the transformation narrative in texts by policy actors and academic actors implementing science for sustainability. This may have structural implications for RC in global science and the inequalities they (re-)produce or counter. We suggest a more nuanced engagement with RC as policy and research subject for science to deliver the holistic transformation the 2030 Agenda strives for.
•The study reconstructs narratives of research collaboration for sustainability.•Policy texts by UN bodies primarily mediate a deficit and innovation narrative.•Scientific bodies foreground a transformation narrative of research collaboration.•The transformation narrative addresses different forms of inequalities in science.•More research and reflection on collaborative science for sustainability is needed.
•A new mathematical model for the transmission dynamics of HIV is proposed.•Global stability of the unique endemic equilibrium is proved.•The sensitivity indexes for the basic reproduction number are ...computed.•Model predicts well real data.•The United Nations UNAIDS goal to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 is a nontrivial task.
We propose a new mathematical model for the transmission dynamics of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Global stability of the unique endemic equilibrium is proved. Then, based on data provided by the “Progress Report on the AIDS response in Cape Verde 2015”, we calibrate our model to the cumulative cases of infection by HIV and AIDS from 1987 to 2014 and we show that our model predicts well such reality. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is done for the case study in Cape Verde. We conclude that the goal of the United Nations to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 is a nontrivial task.
Globally, mental disorders account for almost 20% of disease burden and there is growing evidence that mental disorders are socially determined. Tackling the United Nations Sustainable Development ...Goals (UN SDGs), which address social determinants of mental disorders, may be an effective way to reduce the global burden of mental disorders. We conducted a systematic review of reviews to examine the evidence base for interventions that map onto the UN SDGs and seek to improve mental health through targeting known social determinants of mental disorders. We included 101 reviews in the final review, covering demographic, economic, environmental events, neighborhood, and sociocultural domains. This review presents interventions with the strongest evidence base for the prevention of mental disorders and highlights synergies where addressing the UN SDGs can be beneficial for mental health.
Drawing upon institutional and stakeholder theories, we explore the ‘causal’ mechanisms of institutionalization and their influence on Sustainable Development initiatives. To test our arguments, we ...study the registration patterns of 394 large corporations from 12 Western European and Latin American countries into the United Nations Global Compact. Results indicate that the normative and mimetic mechanisms of institutionalization (i.e., academe and peer influence) are better indicators of Sustainable Development initiatives than the coercive one (i.e., government regulation). The implications of these findings are consequential if SD practices continue as an ethical choice, and not a mandated obligation, for corporate decision makers.
In 2008 the United Nations International Law Commission finalized Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers; they were annexed to a United Nations General Assembly resolution later that ...year. In Autumn 2011, the General Assembly will decide on the final form of these articles. Unfortunately, the articles overlap with the 1997 United Nations Watercourses Convention and contain an even more serious flaw: they introduce the novel and potentially dangerous concept that a state has sovereignty over the portion of a transboundary aquifer located within its territory. After providing background on the Draft Articles, this paper proposes possible remedies for these problems.
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