For security purposes, the Nebraska National Guard would like to ask for your cooperation in keeping potentially dangerous items safely outside the gates. At the entry points to the Airshow, ALL bags will be inspected and all individuals are subject to search prior to entering the Airshow. There are no provisions to check prohibited bags or items. Guests will be asked to either return prohibited items to their parked vehicle or dispose of prohibited items at the gate.
June 2012, No. 1 & 2 Vol. XLIX, The Future We Want?
Although the term food security was coined only 16 years ago, humanity has been striving against famine and hunger since ancient times. Agreement at the 1996 World Food Summit, based on the concept that food security exists "when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life", gave a new vision to efforts against hunger and malnutrition. According to this definition, food insecurity is multidimensional, and affects people at the global, regional, national, sub-national and household levels. It presents itself in various forms, such as chronic, acute, and transient. In addition, in order to be food secure, there are different requirements for men, women, children and the elderly.
A new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets with a deadline of 2015, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), was expected to provide new impetus to the cause of food security. However, 12 years down the road, the progress on target 1.C of MDG 1—to halve between 1990 and 2015 the proportion of people who suffer from hunger—is still bleak and stymied in most regions. Stunting and wasting prevails in developing countries, where one in four children are underweight.
The causes behind this alarming phenomenon vary in each case. There are three prerequisites that determine whether food security exists: the physical availability of food through production, import, aid, intra-country transfer; socio-economic and cultural access to food; and food assimilation.
Physical availability to food at both the macro and micro levels can become affected negatively due to a lack of local production, natural and man-made disasters, seasonal variations, water shortage, weak infrastructure, insufficient storage capacities, hoarding, or even legal problems. Socio-economic access to food, however, can be affected adversely due to poverty, lack of resources, climate change, disasters, political instability, and loss of livelihood opportunities. Furthermore, a lack of a consistent supply of subsidized food items, due to a reduced fiscal cushion, low literacy rates, social norms such as gender discrimination, and a lack of awareness about the benefits of maintaining a balanced diet, can impact negatively the distribution of resources within the family.
The factors that hamper food assimilation, on the other hand, include a lack of clean drinking water, inadequate health, hygiene, and sanitation facilities, a low rate of literacy, and a lack of fiscal cushion for Governments to spend on public sector development programmes, which would help ensure basic service delivery. Various other overlapping factors also contribute to the burgeoning world food crisis.
Humanitarian and/or Production Issues
One of the reasons for the slow progress on achieving the goal of halving world hunger is that most of our policy and decision makers consider food insecurity either a humanitarian issue and/or a production issue. Treating food insecurity as a humanitarian issue, however, necessitates ensuring food security through emergency appeals for pledges, charity, food aid, emergency food supplies, and other such measures. While all of these measures may be important in certain circumstances, they cannot tackle future food security requirements, nor can they ensure sustainable food security.
Likewise, treating food insecurity only as a production issue would again cater to only one aspect of food security -- physical availability. Hunger, malnutrition, and food insecurity have increased over the years in surplus producer countries such as India, Pakistan, and many Latin American countries. According to the World Food Programme, due to the eroded purchasing power of consumers in 2010, in Pakistan, there was a 10 per cent decrease in the consumption of wheat, which is considered a staple food.
Trying to tackle the food insecurity issue merely by increasing production sometimes raises questions as to whether food is being produced in a sustainable manner by making use of available resources. The debate against agricultural production subsidies in the North and the realization of the negative effects of the green revolution on the South's environment point to how principles of sustainability may be compromised in a quest to produce more.
Increased production is not the problem as long as it is achieved through principles of sustainability. What is of concern, however, is that very little is being done to ensure socio-economic access to available food for everyone, at all times. This is the most ignored aspect of food (in)security.
Governance and International Partnerships
There are many reasons for the lack of economic access to food. On the supply side, the primary reason for food price volatility is inefficient governance and market distortion practices. Inefficient markets in poorly governed countries, an increase in prices of agricultural inputs, the increased cost of transportation due to fuel price inflation, damage to physical infrastructure limiting the supply of food products, hoarding, and cartelization, especially in the case of staple food items, and the smuggling of food grains and live animals to neighbouring countries are some of the factors that lead to food inflation. All of these issues could be tackled through better governance at the local level.
In most of the developing countries, where the incidence of hunger and food insecurity is also high, restricted or uncertain, physical food supplies trigger panic buying. Those who can afford to pay try to buy beyond their immediate requirement, even at higher prices. This further encourages hoarders to sell at higher prices and the vicious cycle continues until the supply stabilizes.
Looking at progress reports on the MDGs by Member States, it is obvious that while at the macro level many efforts are being made through international partnerships to produce more food, provide better drinking water (not necessarily safe drinking water for most developing countries), control fatal diseases, and Excellerate food absorption, there is no meaningful international partnership to Excellerate socio-economic access to food.
This is the weakest link in our efforts to eradicate hunger, which, in turn, has larger implications for achieving security. All four levels of security -- individual, national, regional, and global -- are mutually non-exclusive and necessary for the survival of the others. More than a billion people on this earth who are lacking food and experience individual insecurity on a daily basis tend to resort to extreme and extraordinary behaviour. Various United Nations agencies have documented how people in developing countries have reduced their meal sizes and shifted to a less preferred diet. One may read any newspaper from any developing country to understand the extreme and extraordinary behaviour of people with individual insecurities. Some of them protest for basic amenities such as an uninterrupted supply of electricity, gas and water, and may resort to actions which can turn violent. Or they are forced to sell their kidneys, or even their children, while a few resort to various other anti-social activities such as theft, burglary, robbery and kidnapping for ransom. Some force their women into prostitution and children into child labour, and some even commit suicide and/or kill their family members. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, a few also become prey to militant groups and blow themselves up as suicide bombers. These behaviours not only promote intolerance and violence, but also lead to socio-political instability, which affects economic growth and prosperity and threatens national, regional, and global securities thereby necessitating an increase in defence and military spending. At this stage, food insecurity jeopardizes sustainable development by threatening peace, social justice, and economic well being.
So what is the way forward? First, the situation requires a change in paradigm where individual hunger is perceived as a national security threat. Such a paradigm shift would result in greater resources being channelled to Excellerate food security. It would also result in the reprioritization of public spending, so that social development would be given priority over national defence, and the benefits of such spending would accrue to individuals and not only to the State.
Second, increased food production should not be achieved by non-sustainable measures, such as the use of natural resources. There is a need to maintain a balance among food production and environmental sustainability.
Third, our national policymakers need to come out of denial and accept that there is the issue of food insecurity. They then need to strengthen the social protection system to provide targeted relief, especially for children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers. They should also introduce special schemes for those who are deprived of access to food, either in the form of cash for work or food for work programmes.
Finally, the lesson to be learned from countries that produce surplus food is that until there is an improvement in governance at the local and national levels, international partnership and global governing bodies will not be of much help in ensuring food security.
The UN Chronicle is not an official record. It is privileged to host senior United Nations officials as well as distinguished contributors from outside the United Nations system whose views are not necessarily those of the United Nations. Similarly, the boundaries and names shown, and the designations used, in maps or articles do not necessarily imply endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
Save the Children’s research suggests that income shortages in poorer households, when combined with shocks such as natural disasters or conflict, reinforce poor health and nutrition and thereby lead to higher rates of child deaths.
Hunger also keeps children out of school and limits their ability to concentrate once in school. Studies conducted by Save the Children indicate that learning achievement among children from poor families is systemically lower than their peers.
An increasing number of young people live in a state of poverty, unemployment and/or underemployment. Over one-fourth of young people in the world cannot find a job paying more than $1.25 per day, the international threshold of extreme poverty. Three quarters of young workers ages 15-29 are employed in the informal sector, increasing the possibility of exploitative or hazardous working conditions.
Save the Children’s Household Economy Approach (HEA) outcome analyses have found that the cycle of vulnerability due to chronic hunger and a lack of livelihoods security may lead poorer households and children to pursue unsustainable and dangerous livelihoods opportunities, to withdraw children from school, or to encourage early child marriage or harmful child labor.
Food security, livelihoods protection and strengthening, and poverty alleviation programs are an essential underpinning to ensuring the survival, education and protection of children, such that the intergenerational cycle of poverty can be broken.
To address this, Save the Children:
Of the 5.9 million children who die each year, poor nutrition plays a role in at least half these deaths. That’s wrong. Hunger isn’t about too many people and too little food. It’s about power, and its roots lie in inequalities in access to resources and opportunities.
The mission of the Information Security team is to protect the people, the information, and the systems of Drexel University.
Information security in the 21st century doesn't only cover data on your hard-drive—it also covers papers stored in your filing cabinet. The security of sensitive information—yours and your organization's—is paramount to continued functioning and well-being of society.
A single data breach can bankrupt a company or destroy your assets and/or reputation. Yet many of us still write our passwords on sticky notes for all to see, leave our computers unlocked when we step away for lunch, or respond to scams phishing for our personal information and credentials. Others do not shred documents with sensitive information, or hold on to paper documents for too long.
Drexel University relies on the security of its sensitive or critical information, physical and electronic. Without information security, no organization functions for long. But without education of the employees, there can be no information security. That is why we must all be responsible for the protection of our data and our organization's data.
Contact the Information Security team at informationsecurity@drexel.edu or 215.895.1984.
The Information Security Policy (C08.1) is a General University Policy that serves as an umbrella policy for a framework of standards that provides specific requirements around use of RIT information assets. The Information Security Policy C08.1 resides on the University Policies webpage.
The Standards Framework may be found on the RIT Information Security website. Compliance with these standards ensures that the information assets of RIT are available to the RIT community, protected commensurate with their value, and administered in conformance with policy, regulation, and applicable law.
The RIT Information Security Office and the Chief Information Security Officer are responsible for creating this policy and the standards framework.
In addition to speaking with staff in the Office of Global Safety and Security (OGSS), Northwestern University offers to options to review travel safety and security information as well as receive informational alerts produced by third parties.
The U.S. DOS’s Travelers website provides a variety of travel safety resources, including country-specific Travel Advisories.
Travelers can also signup for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). STEP is a free service provided by the U.S. DOS to those who are traveling to, or living in, a foreign country. All Northwestern travelers should enroll in STEP (some students are required as a condition of their program or experience).
AlertTraveler (AT) is a subscription service available to students and trip leaders who register trips in the Northwestern International Travel Registry. Travelers can access for free (message and data rates may apply) by downloading the AlertTraveler app for iOS and Android devices. AT utilizes GPS and itineraries stored in the Travel Registry to provide travelers with country and city intelligence, safety and security alerts, and an instant check-in option. Check-in requests will only be issued during a serious emergency; students may also respond to the check-in requests by email or phone. AT will stop sending messages shortly after a traveler's return.
Northwestern has contracted with Crisis24, a security information and assistance firm with global support centers in Europe, the Middle East, South Africa, and the United States. Create an account with Crisis24 to access timely security information resources and sign-up for country-specific alerts.
After communicating with OGSS staff, Northwestern travelers who wish to have an additional perspective on a travel health or security concern can also email the Global Support team at support@crisis24.com or call them in the U.S. at 443-459-4161. This phone number is for trip planning only. For security emergencies abroad, call the NUPD 24/7 at 847-491-3456. When emailing Crisis24 for trip planning advice, please copy OGSS at globalsafety@northwestern.edu to ensure the best service. Be sure to confirm your affiliation with Northwestern University and provide as much detail as possible about planned travel.
William & Mary has a highly complex and resource-rich information technology environment upon which there is increasing reliance to provide mission-critical academic, instructional, and administrative functions. Safeguarding the institution's computing assets in the face of growing security threats is a significant challenge requiring a strong, persistent, and coordinated program that leverages widely accepted, effective security practices appropriate for the higher education environment. This policy states the codes of practice with which the university aligns its information technology security program.
The Commonwealth of Virginia Restructured Higher Education Financial and Administrative Operations Act of 2005 grants institutions additional authority over financial and administrative operations on condition that certain commitments to the Commonwealth are met. W&M's Management Agreement with the Commonwealth provides full delegated responsibility for the management of institutions' information security activities. This delegation includes the authority to conduct these activities in accordance with industry best practices appropriately tailored for the specific circumstances of the university, in lieu of following Commonwealth-determined specifications. This policy documents the industry's best practices with which the university will align its security activities.
university'sty's information security program will be based upon best practices recommended in "the "Code of Practice for Information Security Management Systems" published by the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC 27002:2022), appropriately tailored to the specific circumstances of W&M. The program will also incorporate security requirements of applicable regulations, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Professional organizations, such as the National EDUCAUSE Association and the Virginia Alliance for Secure Computing and Networking, will serve as resources for additional effective security practices.
An employee's failure to comply with any of the above policy statements may result in being disciplined in accordance with general university employment policies and procedures that apply to the respective category of employees. The university may temporarily deny access to university information systems and refer the case to the appropriate local, state, or federal authority for further disposition.
A student's failure to comply with any of the above policy statements may result in disciplinary actions in accordance with the Student Handbook. Depending on the nature and severity of the violation, the university may take one or more of the disciplinary actions listed under the Administration of Student Code of Conduct, Section VII. The university may temporarily deny access to university information systems and refer the case to the appropriate local, state, or federal authority for further disposition.
About the Information Security Office
We support Santa Clara University's outstanding undergraduate, graduate, and research programs by educating the university community on information security and privacy issues, identifying and remediating information security risks, and helping employees protect the university's information assets.
Use the Quick Links below to access the most frequently requested information on our site, or use the navigation sidebar on the right side to access our complete set of information security resources.
It is important to be aware of current regulations, laws and safety tips to consider when traveling abroad. Additionally, the U.S. federal government has strict policies around export controls which can include technology and some data. More information about this can be found at SLU's Export Controls webpage.
To explore various countries travel restrictions, visit https://travel.state.gov.
To maintain contact with work, family and friends, most people who are traveling abroad prefer to use mobile electronic communication devices. Mobile electronic devices such as laptops, cell phones, and tablets, when taken abroad, may be successfully attacked with malware and automated attack tools. These devices, even when kept current with security software, may not be able to thwart such an attack.
Below is a checklist drafted in order to help you prepare for your trip abroad, including tasks to complete when you return to ensure you've done the best job of protecting yourself and your data against malicious activity. Even though these guidelines apply to business travel using SLU devices, adopting these best practices for your personal travel is recommended.
