admin 49 mn people may fall into extreme poverty, the UN warned
“Unless immediate action is taken, it is increasingly clear that there is an impending global food emergency that could have long term impacts on hundreds of millions of children and adults,” informed UN secretary general António Guterres in a video message.
The UN told that 820 mn people globally, or more than 10% of the world’s population, were already ‘chronically food insecure’ before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. These numbers are expected to grow now due to the repercussions of the pandemic.
Guterres said that this is not a consequence of a lack of food to feed the world’s population. “There is more than enough food in the world to feed our population of 7.8 billion people. But, our food systems are failing, and the COVID-19 pandemic is making things worse,” the UN chief said.
Actions taken by nations to slow the spread of COVID-19 have impacted global and national supply chains. Lockdowns have impacted the ability of people to harvest and transport produce to markets. Due to supply chain issues and low price realizations of produce, farmers have resorted to dumping their goods, particularly perishables, as a result of which food wastage has reached ‘damaging levels’.
Containment actions have also led to the loss of livelihood of millions of employees impacting their ability to purchase food, whose prices are increasing and are expected to grow even more as inflationary pressures upsurge as the global recession becomes worse.
49 mn people may fall into extreme poverty, the UN stated. Each percentage point drop in global gross domestic product (GDP) could mean 0.7 mn more stunted children. Presently, around 20% of children globally are stunted and this proportion is likely to grow as poverty rates increase worldwide. Already, due to lockdowns, 368 mn school children were missing out on their daily school meals as of May, the UN said. This could have long-term irreversible health impacts.
“We need to be careful,” Guterres informed. “This is a very different food crisis than the ones we have seen.”
And, as Guterres stated, things were already dire before the pandemic. A combination of causes such as climate change, pest attacks, plagues and conflict – has already threatened food security in large parts of the world, with the problem the most severe in the developing countries.
An earlier UN report on global food crises had warned of threats to food security due to failing food systems in various parts of the world. The number of undernourished people in the world had increased between 2011 and 2018, from 814 million to 821 million reversing gains made over the past decade.
According to web sources, people in Africa faced the most severe food insecurity with 20 percent of its population undernourished. Within the continent, the proportion rose as high as 30 percent in eastern Africa and was low at 7 percent in northern Africa. In South Asia, about 15 percent of the population was undernourished in 2018.
Currently, food insecurity stands further threatened due to COVID-19 and the global recession that it has brought, which is predicted to stay for the next few years. Guterres has recommended a three-pronged remedy plan i.e, designating food services as essential, safeguarding access to food and ensuring sustainable and inclusive food systems. The UN secretary general has also believed that stimulus packages declared by world economies must focus on and reach the most vulnerable.
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