Economic importance, poverty and livelihood expectations.
Despite steady growth over the past few decades, the contri­bution of agriculture to national GDP has been steadily de­clining in all the regions. The proportion of the population dependent on the sector ranges from 3% in NAE to over 60% in ESAP and SSA. Across diverse geopolitical contexts and ecosystems, agriculture continues to play important economic and social roles and currently engages 2.6 billion people. The majority of the world's poor and hungry live in rural settings and are directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods.
     While the transition from predominantly agrarian econ­omies to industrial or service sector led economies has oc­curred the world over, the character and rate of industrial growth has been highly differentiated with rural populations surviving on a steadily dwindling share of the economic pie. In addition, agriculture has been subject to worsening terms of trade, globally as well as nationally. The burden of pov­erty in the sector is incommensurate with the magnitude and range of expectations from agriculture.
     AKST and the agricultural and food systems can make a significant contribution to alleviating poverty for the over 1.2 billion people who live on less than $1 per day and pro­vide adequate and nutritious food for the over 800 million undernourished people. Despite a global reduction in abso­lute poverty, the proportion of the population that is still poor (below poverty line) continues to grow. The need to retool AKST to reduce poverty and provide improved live­lihood options for the rural poor—especially landless and peasant communities, urban informal and migrant workers, is a major challenge today. The macro-level challenge is to equip agriculture with the capacity to address the burden of poverty through intra- and inter-sectoral development poli­cies.

Development models and the environment.  The  drivers of ecological change can best be understood as the con­sequences of development models pursued over the 20th century. Broadly conceived, the regional imbalance of eco­nomic growth, its contribution to the ecological crisis and its effects are differentially experienced in countries of the North and the South. There are multiple causal interlinkag-es between environmental degradation and poverty, which are exacerbated by the uneven distribution of and access to resources (natural resources, capital, information, etc.) between regions and within countries. For instance, small island nations and the coastal populations of developing countries, which contribute the least to global warming, will be among the first to disappear, yet have very limited if any capacity or resources to respond to such crises.
     Across the regions, the poorest, including a dispropor­tionate number of women and children are among the most vulnerable to emerging natural and human-induced envi­ronmental disasters. Thus the empowerment of women as repositories of knowledge about local ecosystems, and as significant constituents of the agricultural labor force (62, 66 and 69% in East Asia, SSA and South Asia, respectively) is fundamental to development and to adapting to a chang­ing environment. Parts of CWANA and SSA (e.g., Lesotho, Yemen) still have legislation that denies women land rights and market citizenship.

     Even in the well-off countries of NAE where significant knowledge exists about appropriate responses to emerging challenges, actions to address mitigation and adaptation to global climate change have thus far been minimal.

Regional Differences and Achievement of Development and Sustainability Goals
Just as current conditions of agricultural production, en­vironmental degradation, inequality, and availability and access to advanced technologies vary from one region to another, so do the challenges and perception of relative im­portance of development and sustainability goals. At the global, regional and national levels, decision makers must be acutely conscious of the fact that there are diverse chal­lenges, multiple theoretical frameworks and development models and a wide range of options. Our perception of the challenges and the choices we make at this juncture in his­tory will determine the future of human beings and their environment.
     The commitment to address poverty and livelihoods re­flects the critical role of agriculture and rural employment opportunities in developing countries where 30-60% of all livelihoods arise from agricultural and allied activities. In NAE, where food insecurity and hunger are no longer major problems, attention has shifted to the question of relative poverty and rapidly declining and changing livelihoods.
     Reducing hunger is an important goal in all developing regions: CWANA, ESAP, LAC and SSA. Of the 854 million malnourished people in 2001 to 2003, only 9 million were in the developed world; ESAP accounted for 61% of the total. In ESAP, however, this represents only 15% of the to­tal regional population while the 206 million malnourished SSA inhabitants represent 32% of the region's population. The substantial number of hungry and malnourished people in NAE indicates that more production does not necessarily equate with hunger reduction.
     Improving human health and nutrition is critical for all regions. AKST can affect health via food safety and security, chronic and infectious diseases, and occupational health. Mal­nutrition is a major cause of ill health and reduced productivity, particularly in SSA and CWANA. Food safety is an impor­tant health issue in all regions. Inappropriate application of AKST contributes to the increase in overweight, obesity, and chronic diseases that is being experienced in all countries. The burden of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases remains high in SSA, CWANA, and ESAP. The relative bur­den of occupational health burdens is lowest in NAE.
     Environmental goals are important globally despite pres­sure on the environment due to relatively high industrializa­tion, urbanization and productivity enhancing agricultural practices in NAE, and pressures to enhance productivity even at the cost of environmental goods and services in SSA. This is consistent with the relative contribution of ag­riculture to natural resource degradation, as well as to the relative importance of agriculture in the overall economy in each region, as is evident in their respective IAASTD Sum­maries for Decision Makers.
     Equity is important across all regions. This goal draws attention to the current conditions of iniquitous distribution and access to resources and to overall income inequality, which is most extreme in LAC. Regional analyses (ESAP,