The COVID-19 pandemic is a multiplier of vulnerability, compounding threats to food insecurity, while exposing weaknesses in food and health systems. It is severely undermining the capacity of communities to cope in times of crisis and has become a stress test for political and economic stability.
Although conflict and insecurity remain the main drivers of hunger, the added dimension of COVID-19 is exacerbating the ability of affected communities to cope. A drastic reduction of livelihood opportunities, employment and income, in addition to natural hazards such as cyclones, hurricanes, flooding and pests are pushing communities further into desperate circumstances. Restrictions on travel and movement of goods, quarantine measures and the corresponding economic fallout as a result of the pandemic are deepening the impact. In April 2020, the World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that 270 million people would become acutely food insecure in the countries of WFP presence by the end of the year if no action is taken; an 82 percent increase compared to the number of acutely food insecure pre-COVID.
The latest Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) assessments1show dramatic increases in acute food insecurity across the globe. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone, nearly 22 million people are facing crisis levels of food insecurity. Burkina Faso has seen a tripling in the number of people falling into acute food insecurity as compared to the same period in 2019. In these countries as well as Yemen, South Sudan, the Sahel region of West Africa and northeastern Nigeria, COVID-19 has combined with conflict and climate shocks as a key driver of hunger. The pandemic has ushered hunger into the lives of more urban populations while placing the vulnerable, such as refugees, war torn communities and those living at the sharp end of climate change at higher risk of starvation. In Latin America, COVID-19 has caused the worst recession in a century.2 Based on a WFP assessment in August 2020, severe food insecurity had increased by 400 percent, rising from 4.3 million people in January to over 17 million in August 2020. These developments are indicative of the challenges in coping with the consequences of the pandemic and underline the need for WFP and partners to step up and continue to respond at scale.