Food Access

Fourth in a series of posts on a research project in Guatemala and Burundi that evaluated how to optimize food assistance programs for the maximum impact. Read the first piece here, the second here , and the third here.

This piece originally appeared on IFPRI.org .

By Dennis O. Ochieng and Emily Wu

In recent decades, the amount of calories available to the average Nigerian on a daily basis has increased significantly. Despite this progress, however, the country continues to battle high levels of malnutrition of varying types. According to a recent research brief , a lack of dietary diversity and dietary quality may be to blame.

An estimated 73 million people in Africa faced acute levels of hunger and food insecurity in 2019, according to the 2020 Global Report on Food Crises, released this week. The continent accounted for 54 percent of the global total of severely food-insecure people. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread around the world, developing countries in the region will likely see even further disruptions to food access. These disruptions will compound existing food crises and potentially create new ones.

This post originally appeared on IFPRI.org blog .