This technical note has been developed to present the emerging evidence on the effects of COVID‑19 on acute food insecurity, livelihoods and agri‑food systems, as well as an analysis of the effects of policy measures and responses related to COVID‑19 with a specific focus on countries with food crisis.
The note is mainly based on emerging evidence from country‑level food security analyses including: latest IPC and CH, and Famine Early Warning Systems Network updates (FEWS NET) and FIRST Country Profiles. The following section, entitled “Emerging evidence on the effects of COVID‑19 and related policy response on agri‑food systems”, is based on an analysis of relevant policies and COVID‑19 related urgent and essential restrictions from 15 FIRST country profiles between May and July 2020. The analysis is triangulated and complemented with emerging evidence from field monitoring systems and specific assessments of the potential impact of COVID‑19 on food supply chains and rural livelihoods5, as well as available evidence and complementary sources from Global Network Against Food Crises partners.
Based on the emerging evidence, the final section of the report presents some concluding remarks and related implications for decision‑making, response and programming to inform addressing the short‑ and long‑term challenges, in an attempt to prevent further food crises, and to effectively and sustainably respond to these crises.