COVID-19 Impacts on Global Poverty
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, social and economic relief measures—including fiscal stimulus and expansion of social safety nets—are crucial to prevent poverty and hunger from rising dramatically in developing countries.
Food Price Media Analysis
While the impact of rising food prices may be clear, the root causes of such price increases often are not. The role of various short- and long-term factors, such as the growth of commodities futures markets and changing levels of grain stocks, continues to be debated. This tool generates up-to-date media daily analysis of factors that may influence commodity price volatility and food security.
Ceres 2030 Virtual Dialogue: How are African governments responding to avert a COVID-19 hunger crisis?
With the global economy reeling from COVID- related measures, the world faces the risk of a dramatic rise in hunger and malnutrition. On April 16, 2020, the ministers from African Union member states recognized that efforts to contain the spread of the virus need to be accompanied by measures to minimize disruptions to food and agriculture systems and to support the livelihoods for all African citizens during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Impacts of Ghana's COVID-19 Response
By: Sara Gustafson
Prepare food systems for a long-haul fight against COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the global economy hard, and in many places other factors—such as the locust invasion in East Africa and falling export commodity prices—are compounding its effects. FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero observes that no modern economy has experienced anything like the combination of the Great Lockdown and the worst recession since the Great Depression, and that these could trigger a global food crisis—with Africa south of the Sahara especially vulnerable. He lays out a series of policy prescriptions that can help keep millions from starvation and fortify food systems for a post-pandemic world.—Johan Swinnen, series co-editor and IFPRI Director General.
Food, Nutrition Insecurity Risk Could Rise in Ethiopia
By Kalle Hirvonen, Gashaw Tadesse Abate, and Alan de Brauw
Impact of COVID-19 Border Policies
This piece originally appeared on IFPRI.org
Across Africa, countries have imposed emergency border restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19. These have delayed a continental free trade agreement, are contributing to fears of a new food crisis, and disrupted cross-border trade. In this post, Antoine Bouët and David Laborde review the border measures and their impacts and provide recommendations on how to make health and trade policies more coherent in a complex environment.— Johan Swinnen , series co-editor and IFPRI Director General.
The Quest for Safer Foods: COVID-19 and Dairy Value Chains in Ethiopia
This post originally appeared on IFPRI's Ethiopia Strategy Support Program (ESSP) blog.
The share of households consuming dairy products in Addis Ababa has dropped by 11 percentage points since the COVID-19 crisis, seemingly linked to perceived risks of consuming dairy products. All income groups declined their consumption, except for the richest quintile where the share of consuming households changed little.
COVID-19 and Dairy Value Chains in Ethiopia
This post originally appeared on IFPRI's Ethiopia Support Strategy Program (ESSP) blog.
The share of households consuming dairy products in Addis Ababa has dropped by 11 percentage points since the COVID-19 crisis, seemingly linked to perceived risks of consuming dairy products. All income groups declined their consumption, except for the richest quintile where the share of consuming households changed little.
Conflict, weather drive acute hunger
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.