Impacts of COVID-19 on food security and nutrition: developing effective policy responses to address the hunger and malnutrition pandemic

Abstract

• Much bigger impact of southern economies now that during SARS empidemic • Already poor state of global food security in the world • Global GDP drop to 1.5% • Poor FNS reduces immune system • the most affected will be the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the population (including migrants, displaced, those in fragile states or affected by conflicts) • consequences will depend on duration of outbreak and difficult to predict but could be severe • The ILO preliminary assessment suggests that dropping global GDP growth by 2-8% would lead to the loss of 5.3- 24.7 million jobs. This in return, implies large income losses for workers, estimated at US$ 860 million to US$ 3.44 billion. • Dependence of farmers on off farm income to operate • Medium and longer term disruptions to food value chains (sick worker, lack of inputs, lack of labour • Impact of shut down of school feeding programs • Closing of public and private sector is creating job losses with impact on poverty • Particular impact for areas already in crisis situation • Risk of reduced ODA • Impact on food supply: disruptions to supply chains; panic buying; reduced food production; • Impact on food access; decreased incomes low wage and casual workers; loss of jobs; loss of remittances; less access to nutritious foods; • Key messages: o Instability in and disruption to food supply o Poorest most affected o Need for great resilience in food system o Impact of secondary effects of COVID-19 on food systems • Recommendations: o CFS take lead role o Government prioritise most vulnerable o Social protection mechanism, with right to food, need to provide short-term essential assistance and longer term livelihood support o Support food suppy chains o Enable agricultural production o Optimise local food systems o Guidelines for food workers to minimise COVID-19 spread o Collate and share data