COVID-19

The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (2021) | Throughout 2020, Indigenous Peoples were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including with increased food insecurity. Indigenous Peoples proved their resilience by setting up their own networks and solutions, connecting communities to help transfer information and goods, and implementing traditional methods of protection to keep themselves safe from the virus and the intrusion of outsiders who potentially carried it. Nonetheless, as the pandemic spread, Indigenous Peoples continued to be persecuted, threatened, criminalised and killed in their efforts to defend their rights.

World Economic Forum (2021) | Another generation of women will have to wait for gender parity. As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be felt, closing the global gender gap has increased by a generation from 99.5 years to 135.6 years. Although this report does not explicitly mention the right to food, it discusses malnutrition in the context of health and security.

Global Network against Food Crises (2021) | GRFC 2021 highlights the remarkably high severity and numbers of people in Crisis or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) or equivalent in 55 countries/territories, driven by persistent conflict, pre-existing and COVID-19-related economic shocks, and weather extremes. The number identified in the 2021 edition is the highest in the report’s five-year existence.

Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (2021) | In recent years, several major drivers have put the world off track to ending world hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. The challenges have grown with the COVID-19 pandemic and related containment measures. This report offers some indication of what hunger might look like by 2030 in a scenario further complicated by the enduring effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also includes new estimates of the cost and affordability of healthy diets, which provide an important link between the food security and nutrition indicators and the analysis […]

Report of the Women’s Working Group of the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism (CSM) for relations with the UN’s Committee on World Food Security (CFS)

The New York Times Magazine | 2 Sept. 2020 | Photographs by Brenda Ann Kenneally A shadow of hunger looms over the United States. In the pandemic economy, nearly one in eight households doesn’t have enough to eat. The lockdown, with its epic lines at food banks, has revealed what was hidden in plain sight: that the struggle to make food last long enough, and to get food that’s healthful — what experts call ‘food insecurity’ — is a persistent one for millions of Americans.

This e-book compiles a selection of entries from the IFPRI blog series on COVID-19. The pieces provide key insights and analysis on how the global pandemic is affecting global poverty and food security and nutrition, food trade and supply chains, gender, employment, and a variety of policy interventions, as well as reflections on how we can use these lessons to better prepare for future pandemics. These pieces draw on a combination of conceptual arguments, global and country-level simulation models, in-country surveys, case studies, and expert opinions. Together, they present a comprehensive picture of the current and potential impact of COVID-19 […]

Hilal Elver | Welt Sichten| 23 June 2020-  The corona virus has been the greatest public health threat in the world for over a century. Even before the pandemic, long-term conflicts, extreme weather events and economic shocks threatened famine in several countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. In addition, the population in many countries such as Zimbabwe or Iran is suffering from economic sanctions from the United States or the European Union. The pandemic makes it clear that such unilateral sanctions violate human rights and should be lifted. Covid-19 not only pushes health and nutrition systems to their limits in […]

Megan A. Carney | The Hill | 29 May 2020 – Foodbank lines stretching for miles along American roadways. Millions of children left hungry by lags in federal emergency food assistance. Elected officials are blocking proposals to increase spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. These are among the perverse indicators of a society that regards food as a commodity. COVID-19 has dramatically exacerbated food insecurity in the U.S. because millions of people can no longer afford to feed themselves or their families. Malnutrition, as a result of chronic food insecurity, weakens the body’s defense against disease and may heighten the risk of complications or […]

This is a hands-on toolkit on how and what to monitor in the context of the right to food and nutrition (RTFN) and COVID-19. The list of questions below can serve as a guide to monitor whether and how the RTFN of people and communities is impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.

PATRÍCIA MONTEIRO | NPR| 24 May 2020 – In Brazil’s favelas, poor urban neighborhoods where residents live in crowded homes and lack basic sanitation, the toll of the coronavirus is expected to be brutal. The informal jobs that sustain 39 million Brazilians, such as selling street food or working temporary construction gigs, are also victims of the stay-at-home order, which started in mid-March. For some in these sprawling settlements, hunger is a threat as real as COVID-19.

Hilal Elver | FikirTuru| 29 April 2020 (in Turkish)–Covid-19 brought with it many conspiracy theories, but thinking about how far these days when food and nutritional security is compromised by this virus can be almost a horror movie scenario. Of course, if we are aware of the fact that the food and nutrition assurance meant here is a matter far beyond stocking food for a few months, we will be closed at home… And if the coronavirus will remain with us for long enough to affect the next harvest season or seasons… But I must mention immediately; Covid-19’s way to prevent food panic […]

This document presents FIAN International’s preliminary analysis of the impact of COVID-19 and the measures taken by governments around the world to contain the pandemic on the human right to food and nutrition (HRtFN). It is the result of a collective effort to monitor developments around the world over the last two weeks, and it is based on our mandate to support grassroots communities and social movements in their struggles to assert their rights. This analysis is preliminary and does not reflect everything that is taking place around the world.  

Transcript as delivered of remarks by David Beasley, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director to today’s virtual session of the UN Security Council on the Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Protecting Civilians Affected by Conflict-Induced Hunger NEW YORK – Forgive me for speaking bluntly, but I’d like to lay out for you very clearly what the world is facing at this very moment. At the same time while dealing with a COVID-19 pandemic, we are also on the brink of a hunger pandemic. In my conversations with world leaders over the past many months, before the Coronavirus even […]

RESOURCES COMPILED BY Vanessa Garcia Polanco This is an editable document. Feel free to add more resources. Please post the name of the document or article with a hyperlink. The latest article is at the top.  We created an online community for you to discuss the articles and resources here. To join the Food and Covid-19 online community, simply click on this link: https://foodtbd.mobilize.io. It will guide you through a simple one screen registration process, then grant you access to the site where you can join others in helping respond to this crisis.

Isabelle Durant, Deputy Secretary-General, and Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Director, Division on International Trade and Commodities | UNCTAD – The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is not gender neutral, as it affects men and women differently. Therefore, we must not be gender blind in our responses to the pandemic, or else women will carry a disproportionately higher economic cost than men. Globally, women are more vulnerable to economic shocks wrought by crises such as the coronavirus pandemic. Why are women so at risk?   Firstly, women are more likely to lose their jobs than men. In many countries, women’s participation in the labour market […]

With the help of its partners and friends, Data2X has compiled a running list of resources and current reporting on gender and gender data as they relate to COVID19 preparedness and response around the world, including the current and anticipated impacts of the pandemic. This list is not exhaustive and intended for all to use. Access this resource HERE. 

Michael Corkery and David Yaffe-Bellany | The New York Times | 13 April 2020 – The nation’s food supply chain is showing signs of strain, as increasing numbers of workers are falling ill with the coronavirus in meat processing plants, warehouses and grocery stores. The spread of the virus through the food and grocery industry is expected to cause disruptions in production and distribution of certain products like pork, industry executives, labor unions and analysts have warned in recent days. The issues follow nearly a month of stockpiling of food and other essentials by panicked shoppers that have tested supply networks as never before. Industry leaders and observers […]

COVID-19 pandemic – Informal briefing to the Human Rights Council Statement by Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 9 April 2020 Madam President, Excellencies, Colleagues and Friends Indeed this is an important meeting, at a time that none of us may ever forget. The COVID-19 pandemic is generating suffering and damage in every region. It poses a far-reaching threat to human rights. As Secretary-General Guterres has warned, it threatens not only development, but also “enhanced instability, enhanced unrest, and enhanced conflict.” We do not know how the virus itself might evolve, or whether those affected will permanently be immune. We […]

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting not only food trade, food supply chains and markets but also people’s lives, livelihoods and nutrition. This collection of policy briefs from the FAO presents a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the pandemic’s impacts on these areas. Briefs are released on a day-to-day basis. Please check back frequently for the latest available briefs. Access the publications here.

Reuters for NY Times | 31 March 2020 – A U.N. human rights expert called on Tuesday for lifting international sanctions against countries ranging from Iran to North Korea and Venezuela to ensure that food supplies reach hungry populations during the coronavirus pandemic. Iran, under sweeping U.S. sanctions for its nuclear and missile programs, is among the hardest-hit by the new pathogen. Venezuela has notified 113 cases to the World Health Organization (WHO), while isolated North Korea, which borders on China and South Korea, has yet to report any. “The continued imposition of crippling economic sanctions on Syria, Venezuela, Iran, […]

Read the Special Rapporteur’s intervention from the 31 March 2020 Committee on World Food Security meeting here.  And click here to learn more about the Special Rapporteur’s involvement with CFS.

Liz Alderman, Melissa Eddy and Amie Tsang | The New York Times | 27 March 2020- When Europe tightened its borders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, France’s biggest farmers sounded an alarm: The workers they rely on from other countries to harvest much of the nation’s food could no longer make the trip. The concern is widespread. In Britain, farmers are struggling to find people to pick raspberries and potatoes. Part of Germany’s prized white asparagus crop risks rotting in the ground. And in Italy, over a quarter of the strawberries, beans and lettuce ripening in coming months may lack harvesters. European governments […]

Stefano Liberti |Internazionale | 20 March 2020 – Andrea Fasoli does not know how to collect his products. From his fields in the province of Verona, the entrepreneur raises the alarm cry of a sector that is suffering heavily from the repercussions of the crisis. The new coronavirus blocks people, closes borders, prevents movement. The seasonal laborers who come to Italy especially from Eastern Europe in this period have stayed at home, leaving the companies without labor. Fasoli cultivates a first fruits of its territory: the white asparagus of Mambrotta. Due to its characteristics, the product must be harvested by hand with a special […]

Read the Brief: GiHA WG Advocacy Brief Gender Impact COVID19

Read the Brief: COVID-19_CommunityEngagement_130320

Track the latest numbers from WHO, here.

GENEVA (24 March 2020) – Broad sectoral sanctions should urgently be re-evaluated in countries facing the coronavirus pandemic, in light of their potentially debilitating impact on the health sector and human rights, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Tuesday. “It is vital to avoid the collapse of any country’s medical system – given the explosive impact that will have on death, suffering and wider contagion,” Bachelet said. “At this crucial time, both for global public health reasons, and to support the rights and lives of millions of people in these countries, sectoral sanctions should be eased or […]

GENEVA (16 March 2020) – UN human rights experts* today urged States to avoid overreach of security measures in their response to the coronavirus outbreak and reminded them that emergency powers should not be used to quash dissent. “While we recognize the severity of the current health crisis and acknowledge that the use of emergency powers is allowed by international law in response to significant threats, we urgently remind States that any emergency responses to the coronavirus must be proportionate, necessary and non-discriminatory,” the experts said. Their appeal echoes the recent call by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to put #HumanRights at […]

Dan Charles | NPR| 18 March 2020 – As Americans scattered to the privacy of their homes this week to avoid spreading the coronavirus, the opposite scene was playing out in the Mexican city of Monterrey. A thousand or more young men arrived in the city, as they do most weeks of the year, filling up the cheap hotels, standing in long lines at the U.S. Consulate to pick up special H-2A visas for temporary agricultural workers, then gathering in a big park to board buses bound for farms in the United States. “I spoke with people going to North […]