World agriculture faces an enormous challenge over the next 40 years: to produce almost 50% more food up to 2030 and double production by 2050. With pressure from increasing urbanisation, industrialisation and climate change also rising, proper water management will be vital.

Once hailed as the imminent successor to fossil fuels, biofuels are hitting some rough patches. Is it time to apply the brakes?

For millions of people worldwide, hunger and malnutrition are common everyday challenges. For some, even famine is a threat. But in many developed countries, food abundance brings other serious nutritional and health problems. Though these are being addressed, western habits are starting to spread.

Agriculture not only contributes to climate change and is affected by it, it also forms part of the solution. Coherent and effective policies are needed.

Can global agriculture and food systems provide for the predicted 9 billion people living in the world in 2050? Predictions of global famine are not new, but recent setbacks in the fight to eradicate hunger have brought agriculture back to centre stage in international discussions.

Hana Barqawi realised her dream of opening her own children's furniture store two years ago in the Jordanian capital of Amman. Ms Barqawi is part of a wave of female entrepreneurs that has swept across the Middle East and North Africa area over the past decade or more. She is not surprised: "Arab women are well-educated, openminded, open to new ideas, new cultures, new challenges," she says. Nor has she found cultural attitudes to be a major problem, with Jordanian men accepting the new female business presence. But Ms Barqawi notes that while servants and nannies are available to help with childcare, balancing work and family life has now become a daily juggle for many women like her. But to what extent do Ms Barqawi's experiences reflect those of other women across the Middle East and North Africa region?

The world economy has hit a wall over the past 12-18 months. This was the opening message from INSEAD's Soumitra Dutta in a panel debate at OECD Forum 2009 to discuss the OECD's latest economic forecasts launched moments earlier (OECD Economic Outlook No 85, June 2009).*

Financial market turbulence and climate change also featured as headline issues at this year’s OECD Forum (www.oecd.org/forum2008). The Forum is civil society’s chance to influence “OECD Week”, and is held in conjunction with the annual ministerial meeting.

As the 8th annual OECD Forum in May showed, everyone agrees that innovation is important, but not everyone agrees on the reasons why.

Announcements about enlarging the OECD’s membership and strengthening co-operation with other countries took much of the limelight at this year’s annual ministerial meeting. Below is an extract on enlargement from the Chair’s summary, followed by some selected highlights of the meeting.

“Innovation: Advancing the OECD Agenda for Growth and Equity”: that is the theme of this year’s annual Ministerial Council on 15-16 May, and it reflects what many governments believe are clear priorities. (Chair's conclusions now available!)

Chair’s summary*, OECD Council at Ministerial Level, Paris, 23-24 May 2006:

“Against the backdrop of a broadening global expansion, ministers identified and discussed two sets of key policy challenges. First they underscored how crucial it is to ensure that momentum be sustained where the upswing is already strong, and that those economies that are lagging in the cycle catch up.

“You cannot find a bigger, more complex and all-encompassing subject than that of ‘Balancing globalisation’ ”, said moderator David Eades of BBC World in his opening remarks to the 2006 OECD Forum. There are no simple answers to the challenges it poses either. In a light-hearted observation, Mr Eades suggests a clue might be found in Douglas Adams’ novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where the indecipherable answer to “Life, the Universe and Everything” was found to be the number 42.

Restoring balance is very much at the heart of this year’s agenda at the OECD Forum on 22-23 May. Economic imbalances; the contribution of financial markets; technology and innovation; managing global challenges such as natural disasters and pandemics; managing the successful integration of China and India into the world economy; creating jobs in the 21st century; and how to ensure effective and ethical trade and investment, are just some of the themes.

“Globalisation, propelled by trade and investment liberalisation, and rapid technological change, has delivered prosperity and reduced poverty for millions of people in recent decades. We have learned, however, that reaping the full benefits of globalisation requires many elements, including good public and corporate governance; policies that promote structural adjustment and social cohesion; greater access to education; efficient financial markets; and sound policies for research, innovation and development. Of course, policies are critical, but implementation is too often undermined by domestic political considerations.

The short-term economic outlook; how to ensure economic stability and improve economic performance; how to implement economic reforms for growth and employment; the follow-up to last December’s WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong-China; and the future strategic direction of the OECD; these are the main topics for discussion at this year’s OECD Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM) in Paris on 23-24 May 2006. “Delivering prosperity” will be the overarching theme of the meeting, which is the summit in the OECD calendar. Kostas Karamanlis, prime minister of Greece (see editorial in this edition), will chair the discussions which will be held at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Quai d’Orsay.

Secretary-General Donald J. Johnston (foreground) shares a joke with his successor, former Mexican finance minister, Angel Gurría, at a media briefing by video link on 30 November last. Later this month, on 24 May, at the end of this year’s Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM), Mr Johnston will complete his second 5-year term. Following a news conference at the close of the meeting, he will formally hand over office to Mr Gurría, who was selected by OECD member countries last November.