COVID worsens food insecurity for 54m in Asia-Pacific in 2020

In 2020, COVID-19 exacerbated food insecurity for around 54 million people living in the vast Asia-Pacific region, according to a joint UN agency report published on Wednesday, reported Xinhua.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) 2021 Asia and the Pacific Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition pointed out that as hunger increased, so too did access to sufficiently nutritious food.

In total, more than 375 million people faced hunger in the region in 2020, up from around 321 million in 2019.

The two agencies reported that poverty continued to prevent 1.8 billion people from eating a healthy diet, while more than 1 billion did not have access to adequate food in 2020.

The pandemic worsened hunger and poor nutrition levels in Asia and the Pacific dramatically, UNICEF and FAO said, adding that even countries that initially reported a limited number of cases suffered the negative effects of containment measures.

The number of undernourished stalled in recent years, as seen in children under the age of five - more of whom were suffering from stunting.

The coronavirus outbreak exacerbated that trend.

"While it is not yet possible to fully quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, clearly it has had a serious impact across the region," FAO Assistant Director General and Regional Representative Jong-Jin Kim and UNICEF acting Regional Director for East Asia and the Pacific Marcoluigi Corsi said in the foreword.

"Even countries that initially reported a limited number of COVID-19 cases experienced the negative effects of the containment measures, combined with people's health concerns, that led to a major contraction of economic activity around the globe," they said.

As a result of disruptions to food supply chains, the situation worsened.

The situation was bad, and it could have been even worse without the social protection measures put in place by governments during the crisis, the officials said. "In building back better, future agri-food systems will have to provide better production, better nutrition, a better environment and better livelihoods."

The UN agencies stressed that the needs of small-scale, family farmers and indigenous people in the region must be addressed in order to achieve this.

Moreover, food systems need to prioritize the dietary needs of vulnerable groups, such as young children and women.

"This year there are opportunities to begin the hard work of advancing food security and nutrition through transforming agri-food systems," said the officials.

Pledges made at the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference, UN Food Systems Summit, and Nutrition for Growth Summit - during which FAO, the World Health Organization and the World Food Programme (WFP) explained how countries can promote more nutritious, desirable, context-appropriate school food that is sustainably produced - must be implemented.

"We must leverage the commitments made during these events to meet the second Sustainable Development Goal and eradicate food insecurity and malnutrition," they concluded.