The Impact of Covid-19 on Food Security
Photo: WFP/ Photogallery
Lawrence East
The challenge of ensuring adequate supplies of food and medicine to those in need is one that is impacted by a wide variety of factors. Natural disasters, conflict and climate change have all resulted in a global increase in food insecurity, despite global food supplies remaining ample. Most unfortunate has been the rapidity of such events in close succession in East Africa. A biblical locust swarm, followed by the pandemic, followed by internal conflict between the government and Tigray has pushed food distribution and hunger to the brink in Ethiopia.
Adding to this challenge has been Covid-19. The uncertainty around the efficacy of vaccines in the face of rapidly evolving variants has stretched countries already suffering from meagre supplies. It is this uncertainty dominating global food value chains and food markets that further exacerbates the issue of feeding the 26.5 million people in East Africa facing food insecurity.
International organisations work to help bring about change to this problem. One such organisation, World Vision International, have been instrumental in changing the face of food insecurity globally. World Vision International is currently the United Nations World Food Programme’s largest partner, providing short term aid, education, and long-term partnerships in order to combat hunger. Their work with farmers, cooperatives, local and national governments, as well as with a huge number of other international organisations has been instrumental in this process. The issues caused by Covid-19, in damaged value chains and lack of access to markets are some of the key policies that World Vision International set out to correct. This is done by providing short term nutrition in crisis zones, and by educating communities in natural resource management, storage methods and effective land management, in order to help move communities from subsistence to commercial farming. This is helping to combat both food crisis situations caused by emergencies such as conflict as well as seasonal hunger.
What is Food Security?
“A situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. Such was the definition given to food security by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). This definition covered the 4 dimensions of food security, as seen in the table below.
Table I: FAO 2008
Ensuring food security relies on the achieving of all four dimensions simultaneously and over a period of time. However, time is not the only measurement that helps to reveal the extent to which food security can be threatened. It is also imperative to highlight the severity of the insecurity. In order to achieve this, food security is divided into measurements of severity utilising the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC).
Table II: FAO 2008
The IPC utilises 5 distinct levels to describe the severity of acute food insecurity. These are: i) Minimal/ None; ii) Stressed; iii) Crisis; iv) Emergency; v) Catastrophe/ Famine. The IPC was created in order to provide consensus across the categorisation and thus definition of cases of insecurity. This subsequently allows for methodological evaluation and necessary strategic planning to begin to solve the challenge of food insecurity.
Impact of Covid-19
The emergence of a global pandemic quickly resulted in wide-spread concerns over worsening conditions for those already struggling with undernourishment and hunger. In East Africa particularly, food insecurity has been a constant issue. Prior to Covid-19, around 33.1 million people through Central and East Africa were experiencing food insecurity of IPC 3 or worse. Whilst an issue of this scale has become commonplace through these regions, this particular crisis had come about as the result of extensive flooding, displacement of peoples (and thus, livelihoods such as farming) due to the conflict and the locust swarms. Furthermore, the effect of Covid-19 is both indirect and direct on food, as other areas such as the overall GDP of a country can also be affected.
The International Food Policy Research Institute examine this in the below video.
(0.00-5.20)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbEGzg2HucI
However, the effect of disease and its impact on livelihoods and food security is not something that is new in these regions.
Three factors are considered to accelerate hunger globally. These are: Conflict; Covid-19 Economic Fallout; and the Climate Crisis. Following the realisation of the severity of Covid-19, the UN called for a global ceasefire in March 2020. Conflict is the primary cause of hunger for over 100 million people in 23 countries. The issues caused by conflict on food security, from cultivation through to distribution, have been compounded by Covid-19. This is through fear of contracting the disease by individual labourers but also through government attempts to prevent overwhelming health services by enforcing social distancing measures.
Covid-19 has also caused a global economic downturn. Mass unemployment occurred due to widespread closure of businesses as part of social distancing measures. This has resulted in over 40 million people experiencing extreme hunger due to pandemic related economic issues, showing a 70% increase on 2020.
The climate crisis has also added to the problem of hunger across the globe, with 16 million people across 15 countries being predominantly affected. Of course, all of these primary factors of hunger are not exclusive of each other, hence the desire for the UN to at least reduce that which is most controllable, being conflict. However, with the advent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this situation once again is put into striking perspective as another million people face uncertainty and hunger as refugees across Europe.
However, many countries have been prepared for a situation such as this, wherein food security is threatened, due to previous experiences of disease. The advent of SARS and Avian Flu throughout the early 2000s prompted initiatives driven by both local and international governments and organisations to help vulnerable populations cope with food value chain issues in the event of widespread disease, or other disruptive occurrences including conflict. One such example is Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP). Implemented following issues raised with direct support aid, that focused on distributing specific sums of money based on a set of prerequisites, PSNP provides a more individually tailored solution, taking into consideration a wide range of variables in household provision, including gender roles.
This was necessary as the initial emergence of Covid-19 was predicted to have a catastrophic impact on food value chains in Ethiopia. This was first seen in the change in GDP within Ethiopia. Despite a 9% growth in 2019, the emergence of Covid-19 resulted in a growth in GDP of just 6.1% in 2020. This is very representative of the food value chains in Ethiopia as agriculture makes up the largest proportion of the GDP. In addition, due to speculation over the virus spreading through animal products, animal product consumption dropped dramatically. Milk sales in particular dropped around 11% in the first few months. It is through this example that the food value chain issue can be explored. As demand for raw milk declines, the farmers involved in raw milk production begin to see substantial losses. Not only does this impact the farmers, but the often subsistence-based employees also suffered, as wages fell, and many were made unemployed. Covid-19 also affected the number of people could work in close proximity, particularly as the Ethiopian government began to implement stay home mandates. This impacted predominantly informal sector workers, being street vendors, taxi drivers and subsistence farmers, contributing to a huge proportion of the population.
The effects were felt across Africa and the rest of the world. Aid relief efforts have met widespread difficulty, from stampeding hungry citizens in Kibera through to protests over the implementation of Covid-19 restrictions in Mumbai, where those living on daily incomes from the service industry suffered most. In Ethiopia, the government gradually brought in stricter measures seeking to limit the transmission of Covid-19, however, in doing so, further impacted people’s capacity to provide food for themselves and their families. After the first case was discovered in Addis Ababa on the 13th of March 2020, restrictions on movement and on gatherings in religious or educational settings were set and an order of “Shelter in place” was given.
However, in Ethiopia, the pandemic within a pandemic did not materialise in the way it was predicted. GDP, initially thought to drop to a level of just 3.2% managed to reach 6.1%. Households that were a part of PSNP reported much lower impact from Covid-19 than those not part of the system. Between March-August 2019 and June 2020, 11.4% of households contacted reported an increase in the food gap, whilst just 2.4% of those part of a safety net programme reported a negative change. This is despite 66% of respondents declaring a loss of income throughout the pandemic. The size of the increase in the food gap is equally important to understand. Non-PSNP participants saw the food gap (being the number of months a household could not sustain themselves) increase from 1.3 to 1.6 over the same time period, whilst PSMP participants only saw an increase of 0.14. This clearly displays the success of these programmes in alleviating some of the difficulties experienced by the compounded issues of conflict, climate change, and Covid-19. Despite the success, half of all contacted respondents reported that their food situation had deteriorated due to Covid-19.
Whilst extreme hunger may be mitigated by programmes such as this, the right to a “situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” is still out of reach for hundreds of millions of people globally. It is here that the vast inequalities found in society are revealed most starkly. Whilst named, “the great equaliser, Covid-19 has been anything but. Whilst marginalised groups such as informal workers and women are thrust deeper into poverty and food insecurity, the 10 wealthiest people in the world have gained $413 billion throughout 2020. This is enough money to fulfil the UN humanitarian appeal 11 times over.
World Vision International
Food security is a key aim for many international organisations, not only the World Food Organisation (WFO) or International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). World Vision International has also taken these reigns to try and aid people in need. Originally established in 1950 as a Christian missionary service to provide emergency services in crisis areas, by 1970, World Vision International had begun operating international in a range of humanitarian operations. As of 2020, World Vision International operates on a budget of over $2.5 billion dollars per annum in over 90 countries. In Ethiopia, World Vision International has worked towards the implementation of WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) as well as food security and nutrition, amongst many others. World vision has provided this support to around 3.5 million children across Africa in the last 7 years.
Reflection
The challenges that are encountered by World Vision International and the many other international organisations currently working toward providing support to those affected by food insecurity are manifold. Learning about how to best approach these challenges, particularly from a multi-disciplinary perspective, is something I am keen to explore further. This is particularly from the view of the relationship between policy deciders and creators within the organisations and other employee’s focused on field work and research, and how this relationship is fostered to ensure the correct approach is followed. I am also looking forward to better understanding how the organisation manages to remain apolitical, when they are outwardly advertising their status as a religious organisation and there are many connotations that go along with this. It would be beneficial to further examine the role of individuals that work in Geneva, and how there is a consistency in both policy and practice across all of their headquarters as well as their active sites. For this international organisation in particular, I would like to learn about paths of progression within the administration and to understand what element of practical support employees in headquarters give, as well as what strategic planning elements are researched and implemented in the field.