The world is facing major nutritional challenges, with millions of people suffering from starvation or malnutrition. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs have asked Fafo to update our knowledge about these issues and how Norwegian aid and policy could be optimized to helt.

The report, written by Ellen Cecilie Andresen and Anne Hatløy, finds that through increasing its nutrition efforts, Norway can help achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2, which aims to eradicate hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030. They also advice Norway to support governments, civil societies, and national/local efforts that engage in nutrition-specific interventions to reduce all forms of malnutrition, as well as organisations and processes that promote nutritional sensitivity through all parts of the food system to ensure better access to varied, healthy and sustainable food for more people.

The assessment, based on interviews of 1,190 enterprises across Jordan in late April, sheds light on the significant impact of COVID-19 and the lockdown measures on enterprises and employees.

Tewodros Aragie Kebede, Svein Erik Stave and their two co-authors find that only 7 per cent of surveyed enterprises reported operating as usual at the time of the survey and only 13 per cent indicated that under the conditions at time of the survey they would be able to stay operational for more than six months.

This article, co-written by Jon Rogstad, explores the relationship between labor market discrimination, stereotypes and employers’ experiences with immigrant workers. The article finds that experience – or lack thereof – matters distinctively when considering applications from immigrant workers.

Thus, Norwegian employers seemed to update their attitudes, which implies their decision making is flexible, allowing positive experiences to influence hiring decisions. At the same time, their consideration seems to be quite sensitive to negative experiences.

This article by Anne Inga Hilsen and Tonny Kværne explores how to promote inter-professional collaboration between health professionals and welfare professionals in a project organisation (the Inter-professional collaboration project IPC-project) aimed at work life inclusion for people with reduced work ability.

Through a participative research design (action research) centred on a series of three workshops during a 6-month period, the project members explored how they could improve their practice and better support the users of the services.        The article is based on a Master thesis at the University of South-Eastern Norway.

The Norwegian government has awarded a contract to a travel agency that offers hotel deals to Israeli settlements in the occupied territories on the West Bank and Golan. In an op-ed on Bistandsaktuelt.no (in Norwegian), Mads Harlem and Mark Taylor suggest that Norwegian companies and public agencies do not understand their legal responsibilities and need to do more to ensure they respect the rights of civilians caught up in wars and conflicts.