The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO) has announced that it is calling for an additional investment fund of $1.2 billion to finance the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme, in order to step up the battle to avoid a global food crisis during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was revealed during a virtual dialog meeting called; “Joint action on COVID-19: boosting our food and agricultural response,” with the private and public sector on Tuesday, according to a report released on the Agency’s website.
The FAO organized the event with the goal of delivering an effective and coordinated global response that will ensure access to healthy food for everyone, through the mobilization of all types of capital and collaborations at national , regional and global level.
In line with the UN strategy to ‘build back stronger’ post-COVID-19 and in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs), the current plan aims to reduce the immediate impacts of the pandemic while at the same time improving the long-term resilience of food systems and livelihoods.
In his remarks, the FAO director-general, Qu Dongyu, was quoted to have said, “We cannot employ a ‘business as usual’ approach anymore,” he said, adding that, “We must work very hard to limit COVID-19’s damaging effects on food security and nutrition.
“We need to be more country-driven, innovative and work closely hand-in-hand. This is how FAO has built its COVID-19 comprehensive response and recovery programme, and today we are asking you to join us.”
In addition to being a significant public concern, the COVID-19 pandemic could also pose a severe threat to global food security, the report indicates.
This pointed out that, according to the World Bank ‘s projections, the economic effects of the pandemic could drive some 100 million people into extreme poverty.
“Soaring unemployment rates, income losses and rising food costs are jeopardizing food access in developed and developing countries alike and will have long-term effects on food security,” the report reads.
Meanwhile, the latest edition of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report noted that even before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the global food systems and livelihoods of millions at the beginning of the year, 60 million people were undernourished more than in 2014, and 10 million more in 2018.
Previously, the Global Report on Food Crisis released earlier this year estimates that 135 million people were acutely food-insecure and in need of urgent humanitarian food and nutrition assistance.
It also stated that the pandemic could plunge national economies into recession, and countries should take urgent action to mitigate longer-term impacts on food systems and food security.
“Equally urgent is the compounding threat of the pandemic on existing crises – such as conflict, natural disasters, climate change, pests and plagues – that are already stressing our food systems and triggering food insecurity around the globe,” the FAO report noted.
In an attempt to reduce the adverse effects of COVID-19 on food security and nutrition, while reforming global food systems to make them more robust, sustainable and equitable, FAO said that its immediate action will concentrate on seven main priority areas, including: enhancing the global humanitarian response plan for COVID-19; improving decision-making data; ensuring economic inclusion, and so on.
This also hopes to improve trade and food safety standards; enhance smallholder resilience for recovery; avoid the next zoonotic pandemic through a strengthened ‘One Health Approach’ and also cause transformation of food systems.
In response to the current emergency, FAO has stated that it is working to bring together governments and multiple stakeholders in a call for action, to gather and analyze data to better understand emerging trends and to identify any deterioration, and to provide timely technical advice, through capacity building across a wide range of disciplines.
In addition , the organization is offering investment support to leverage all forms of partnership and finance, notes the report.
FAO Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol said that the efforts needed to resolve the above seven priority response areas would be immense. “The Food Coalition is an exemplary approach to leveraging high-level capital and political will to avoid an escalation of the pandemic from a health crisis to a food crisis,” he was quoted to have said.
