Thursday, June 11, 2020 - 09:30 am to 10:45 am (EDT)
COVID-19 has led to an unprecedented global response through expanded social safety nets, as countries struggle to mitigate the health and economic risks related to the virus and accompanying lockdowns. Gains made in the fight against poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition in the last decade are threatened, requiring a vigorous policy response. Social safety nets hold promise to minimize further harm, particularly among vulnerable populations. But the expansion of safety nets during the pandemic faces significant challenges. This seminar presents evidence on how social safety nets have been used to respond to COVID-19, how well this response has addressed food security and nutrition, and opportunities and challenges going forward. Speakers will provide a global overview, and profile the experience and research evidence from Bangladesh and Ethiopia. These two countries have welcomed IFPRI and partners to carry out research aimed at improving the effectiveness of their extensive social safety net systems.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a health and human crisis threatening the food security and nutrition of millions of people around the world. Hundreds of millions of people were already suffering from hunger and malnutrition before the virus hit and, unless immediate action is taken, we could see a global food emergency. In the longer term, the combined effects of COVID-19 itself, as well as corresponding mitigation measures and the emerging global recession could, without large-scale coordinated action, disrupt the functioning of food systems. Such disruption can result in consequences for health and nutrition of a severity and scale unseen for more than half a century.
9 June 2020, 18:30 pm-20pm CET
The session will be livestreamed at bit.ly/foodsystemsolutions and will be recorded
These series of webinars aim to create a ‘solutions space’ for stakeholders to share lessons learned from the Covid19 crisis, in a world challenged by the compounded impacts of Climate Change on Health, Malnutrition and Equity. Experts, innovators and visionaries will help to identify short and long term Climate Resilient Development Pathways, for transformative, sustainable and equitable food systems and healthy diets, that can contribute to One|Planetary Health, Resilience and Just Transitions.
The series is co-organized by UNFCCC observers including: Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, ProVeg International, Loyola Marymount University, Sustainability Health Education (SHE) Foundation, the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) and UN Environment Program (UNEP).
You can send questions in advance, send comments and share materials by writing to climatefoodhealth@gmail.com
Planned webinars over the summer include:
5 June 2020 - 9AM EDT/1PM UTC/GMT
The Food Systems Dashboard is a unique holistic resource intended for policymakers, non-governmental organisations, businesses, civil society leaders, and other actors to enable timely visualisation of national food systems, understand the interconnections across multiple sectors, perform comparisons with other countries, identify key challenges, and prioritise actions.
Join the webinar to learn more about the Dashboard and how it can help inform your work.
Speakers include:
Webinar link to follow.
