Impacts and threats of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and nutrition, and options to respond
As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, the development community is working to understand how the crisis will impact food security, nutrition, and food systems:
- The latest special issue of the IFPRI Insights newsletter shows the severe impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on Ethiopia’s poor and warns against export restrictions that could raise rice and wheat prices—potentially leading to a rise in global hunger. This issue also highlights a blog on tracking policy responses to COVID-19—see IFPRI’s COVID-19 webpage for more evidence, blogs, tools, and events.
- On May 28, a virtual event on protecting nutrition and healthy diets in the context of COVID-19—and safeguarding the recent progress made in achieving global nutrition goals—will be co-hosted by IFPRI and the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH).
- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a loan of US $500 million for Bangladesh’s COVID-19 response to manage the pandemic’s impact on the economy and public health. The loan will allow the government to expand its social protection programs to provide food and cash to vulnerable families among other efforts.
- A World Bank blog post highlights the need for quality diets as essential for health—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The blog suggests securing food at affordable prices for vulnerable communities, ensuring nutrition beyond staple crops, and realigning public spending to achieve health and nutrition goals.
- A new webinar series from the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) and partners in Asia will share insights in science, food resilience, health research, and technological developments that can be harnessed to address and mitigate the long-term impact of COVID-19. Compact2025 Leadership Council member Shenggen Fan and two other experts discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the food system.
“Build back better” and rethink food systems to protect human and planetary health
The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) will host a digital conference on transforming food systems in a time of crisis from June 3-5. As part of the global drive to “build back better” after the coronavirus pandemic, the conference will host over 100 experts, activists, chefs, and others to speak on innovations and actions to transform food systems for human and planetary health.
Working at the intersection of agriculture, nutrition, and health during the 5th ANH Academy Week
The 2020 ANH Academy will bring together a community of researchers, practitioners and policymakers from across the world working at the intersection of agriculture, nutrition and health to foster knowledge exchange, innovation and learning, touching on COVID-19's impacts on our shared work. The virtual ANH2020 will consist of Learning Labs (June 23-25) and a research conference (June 30-July 2). Registration is free for attendees, though seats are limited.
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