Archive for month: May, 2020

For more than two months now, the world has been living in semi-confinement and the world’s economy moving in slow motion due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Both the disease and the measures that are taken to reduce its spread cause disturbances and disruptions in day-to-day food supply mechanisms, which are increasingly felt at all levels. An increase of at least 150 000 child deaths is estimated due to the indirect impacts of COVID-19 in health service delivery and childhood undernutrition[1]. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 135 million people experienced crisis level of acute food insecurity and COVID-19 and related restrictions risk pushing many more into acute hunger (FSIN 2020)[2].

As the pandemic spreads, the points of interaction between people and the food system – their food environments - are changing rapidly and taking on greater importance in everyday life. Lockdowns, policy responses, and COVID-19 itself have the potential to impact on both external and personal food environments, detailed in figure 1.

Figure 1. Possible impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food environments

Consequences range from undernutrition  to overweight/ obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The role of unhealthy diets has been further heightened during the pandemic given people with NCDs are more vulnerable to becoming severely ill and to die from COVID-19.[3]

But what does the evidence tell us is actually happening in practice? Much of the reporting and action related to COVID-19s impact on food environments focuses on external domains which lie largely outside of people’s sphere of influence. To better understand how people are experiencing and adapting to these changes within the personal domains of their food environment, UNSCN conducted an online survey from 15 to 30 April 2020[4] . Convenience sampling was employed which utilized UNSCN’s existing communication networks.

In total 2006 people from 108 countries, in primarily urban settings, responded. Most of them are female (70%) and around half between 25 and 44 years of age. Half of them are working or studying in nutrition, education, government, and health services. Most respondents were from Western Europe and North America (46%), followed by the Asia-Pacific Group (excluding China where surveys in Google forms are prohibited) (30%). Respondents from Africa (15%), Latin America and Caribbean (8%) and from Eastern Europe (1%) were less numerous.

Preliminary results show that survey respondents’ food accessibility altered noticeably and food related daily routines were the most disrupted, after work and social related activities. With strict rules placed on people's personal movement to limit the spread of COVID-19 this is not surprising.

Among food related behavior changes related to food desirability and convenience, 2 out of 3 respondents indicated an increase in food stockpiling, likely linked to the finding that nearly half of all respondents report buying more food out of anxiety. In addition, the large majority of responses indicated facing important accessibility changes at the point of purchase. This included restricted access (81%), physical distancing measures (91%), as well as the availability of information on protective measures (89%) and responsible purchasing (70%) at the point of sale.

Home cooking seems to be the big winner of the crisis with 50% of the respondents indicating an increase in the practice, with the correspondent decrease in eating out, either in restaurants/cafeterias/bars our at family and friend’s places. Among the survey respondents, home cooking and food stockpiling seems to be accompanied by increased awareness of food waste (66%) and the promising indication that this awareness means food is not being wasted more than normally (93%). While the survey did not directly seek information on affordability of food this is an important and sensitive domain as many people around the world are facing increased food insecurity because of reduced income and earning potential. The impacts are most prominent in areas that were already facing food insecurity before the outbreak of COVID-19. Despite the surveys bias with responses from largely higher income countries 8% of respondents reported relying on social protection measures such as food banks, while 17% are relying on alternative sources of food such as personal and community food production.

So what can we learn from this? COVID-19 related changes in food environments reveal the weaknesses in the system and the need for more resilience and sustainability. While great, the current challenges create opportunities. Faced with uncertainties and anxiety, people are searching for direction and reassurances in their food environments. Heightened awareness about our food environments and the foods we consume create a catalyst for change. 

[1] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(20)30229-1/fulltext

[2] GRFC 2020. Global Report on Food Crisis 2020. Available at : https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000114546/download/?_ga=2.126964110.221321867.1589466142-2144737428.1589466142

[3] WHO, 2020. Information note on COVID-19 and NCDs. Available at: https://www.who.int/who-documents-detail/covid-19-and-ncds

[4] UNSCN Questionnaire   

Thursday, May 28, 2020 - 09:30 am to 10:45 am (EDT)

Register here

The COVID-19 pandemic — and the related economic crisis and disrupted food and health systems — will likely severely worsen all forms of malnutrition globally. In the short to medium term, micronutrient deficiencies, child wasting and stunting, and overweight and obesity are all expected to surge, stemming the tide of recent progress toward achieving the World Health Assembly’s Global Nutrition Targets 2025.

This seminar, co-organized by IFPRI and the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), will analyze the situation, focusing on anticipated impacts on maternal and child nutrition, diets, reach of nutrition interventions, and mortality. Speakers will also reflect on positive adaptations that could help rebuild stronger health, economic, and food systems, and thereby protect nutrition and health.

Watch on IFPRI's website

14:30 (Geneva time - GMT+2).

Register here

Covid-19 Crisis: Global Crisis, Global Risk and Global Consequences is a new webinar series that examines various possible and visible consequences of the current crisis including its strategic and economic implications, impact on global governance, on gender or the role of technology.

The webinar is free and conducted in English. The first webinar session will provide an overview of the strategic, global health security, crisis management, governance, economic and financial implications of this crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything. In just three months it has spread globally, infected nearly 5 million people, and put half the world in lock-down. With supply chains disrupted, and even multi-national businesses threatened, the economic slowdown has delivered a deeper, more rapid shock than the 2008 global financial crisis. And the accompanying socio-economic impact on health, wellbeing and livelihoods threatens to derail the global compact to “leave no-one behind” that underpins Agenda 2030 and the SDGs.

This pandemic has hit the most vulnerable and unequal societies the hardest. The differential impacts of the health crisis and lockdown have exacerbated pre-existing inequalities - widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots and wiping out decades of progress on poverty eradication. These impacts will last into future generations – through sharp rises in malnutrition and stunting; permanent loss of educational opportunities for children who cannot connect from home; and the toll of death and morbidity among the – usually female and low-paid - health and care workforce who form our first line of defence against the disease.

The crisis has clearly demonstrated that all societies are interconnected and deeply interdependent. These factors drove the global solidarity behind Agenda 2030 and the SDGs that drew support from 193 global leaders at the UN sustainable development summit in 2015. And this compact to build a sustainable future for people, planet, prosperity and peace is the only legitimate, universal and internationally recognised vision for humanity we have. But as poorer countries and vulnerable communities fall further off-track, while richer countries reallocate resources to deal with the immediate impacts of the pandemic, how can we reboot and reshape our efforts to reach the SDGs? What actions must we take to “build back better”?

This webinar will feature presentations on how the direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 crisis have affected and are affected by social and economic inequalities, and the likely impacts on the achievement of the SDGs. Focusing on the latest evidence from nutrition; education; women, children and adolescent’s health and gender equality, the panel will make recommendations for urgent action to stem growing inequality and “leave no-one behind” – and will set out their prescriptions for a sustainable, fair and secure post-COVID world.