This report provides an update on global progress towards the targets of ending hunger (SDG Target 2.1) and all forms of malnutrition (SDG Target 2.2) and estimates on the number of people who are unable to afford a healthy diet. Since its 2017 edition, this report has repeatedly highlighted that the intensification and interaction of conflict, climate extremes and economic slowdowns and downturns, combined with highly unaffordable nutritious foods and growing inequality, are pushing us off track to meet the SDG 2 targets. However, other important megatrends must also be factored into the analysis to fully understand the challenges and opportunities for meeting the SDG 2 targets. One such megatrend, and the focus of this year’s report, is urbanization. New evidence shows that food purchases in some countries are no longer high only among urban households but also among rural households. Consumption of highly processed foods is also increasing in peri-urban and rural areas of some countries. These changes are affecting people’s food security and nutrition in ways that differ depending on where they live across the rural–urban continuum. This timely and relevant theme is aligned with the United Nations General Assembly-endorsed New Urban Agenda, and the report provides recommendations on the policies, investments and actions needed to address the challenges of agrifood systems transformation under urbanization and to enable opportunities for ensuring access to affordable healthy diets for everyone.

Fully revised and updated to reflect current trends and emerging topics, the fourth edition of Conferences and Conventions: A Global Industry provides an expert-led, comprehensive introduction to, and overview of, the key elements of the global conference, convention and meetings industry. This book examines the conference industry’s origins, structure and future development, as well as its economic, social and environmental impacts. It provides an in-depth analysis of the strategies, practices, knowledge and skills required to organise memorable conferences and similar business events, with detailed descriptions of all the planning and operational processes. Following an international approach, this edition features additional sections on the increase in technological advancements and opportunities, as well as the rise of virtual and hybrid events in a post-pandemic era. Written in an accessible and engaging style, the book includes integrated case studies to highlight current issues and demonstrate theory in practice. Structured logically with useful features throughout to aid learning and understanding, this book is an invaluable resource to students following events management, hospitality and tourism courses, as well as for event planners and practitioners already working in the conference industry.

Social enactivism is a philosophical theory which, through the analysis of discursive practice, aims at explaining how high-level cognitive conditions and processes emerge. The fundamental tenets of this theory are based on enactivist and (neo)pragmatist principles. Therefore, the emphasis is not on the purely linguistic understanding of discourse but on its structural interaction with technology, that is created by man himself, in the context of which the discursive performance takes place. This perspective addresses not only a blind spot in the international debate about "situated cognition" but also a current problem in the philosophy of mind.