“Most food price tracking systems aggregate data that may miss short-term price spikes in specific locations—information that could be used to target relief. Researchers from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture describe the development of a crowdsourcing tool for collecting real-time local price data.”
“Under modest movement restrictions, households have stabilized incomes and overall food consumption relative to initial, more pessimistic perceptions.”
“Although child mortality from the virus itself is low compared to other age groups, the social, economic, and health systems crises it has prompted pose a serious threat to young children’s nutrition, health, and survival in low- and middle-income countries.”
“While agrifood systems and food supply chains are generally exempt from COVID-19 restrictions, they have nevertheless experienced disruptions and global market instability.”
“With a devastating one-two punch, a supply shock followed by a demand shock, the COVID-19 pandemic has knocked out the world economy. The first blow was the Great Lockdown; the second, the worst recession since the Great Depression. No modern economy has experienced anything like this. As the spread of the novel coronavirus debilitates people’s ability to harvest and buy and sell food, food systems are under threat as never before.”
“Like the Ebola crisis, COVID-19 provides opportunities to reverse longstanding inequalities and biases. But that requires supporting effective and responsive rural service delivery that safeguards the welfare of the poorest citizens while ensuring food security in rural and urban areas alike.”
“Researchers and practitioners have focused mostly on the governance problems that COVID-19 poses in urban areas, given greater exposure risks for infection there. But rural areas face a distinct set of pandemic challenges deserving special attention.”
“The COVID-19 crisis is having a range of impacts on food consumption and value chains everywhere—containment measures, lost incomes, and perceptions of disease risk are altering availability and consumer preferences.”
“Early research indicates that many African economies are significantly impacted and that poorer households are struggling.”
“National poverty rate increases by 15 percentage points during the lockdown. 30 million more people temporarily living below the US$1.90-a-day poverty line.”
A hub for information, analysis, and the global response to COVID-19’s impact on Africa