- WFP has warned of potential doubling in the number of Africans who would face food insecurity due to the ongoing COVID19 outbreak
- The report urges immediate action to avoid death due to starvation of an estimated 300,000 million Africans
A recently released report by The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned of potential doubling in the number of African people who would face food insecurity due to the ongoing COVID19 outbreak. The report urges immediate action to avoid death due to starvation of an estimated 300,000 million Africans.
The national lockdowns due to the pandemic have worsened the food crisis by disrupting existing food supply chains. Moreover, the region is still recovering from the worst locust invasion, with another on its way. Many African citizens live below the poverty line living from hand to mouth. Further stress to the situation can lead to more food-related clashes. During previous food crisis situations, donor countries like US and Europe came to Africa’s rescue. In the current situation, as they are also preoccupied with their battle with the pandemic and the resultant consequences, aid may not come from that end. This means that Africa will have to look at homegrown solutions to cope with the situations. African Governments, African Union and other stakeholders have to put their heads together to evolve short medium and long term strategies. Some governments have taken immediate short term measures to monitor food prices, make cash transfers to citizens, etc.
WFP recommends an integrated approach, based on data evidence to avoid the hunger crisis. The rapid infiltration of cell phone technologies would be useful to ensure that the government gets real-time data on the citizens who are producing food, the inputs available at the markets, the traders of food and the food products they are trading and so forth. Such data would enable the governments to work on improving logistics of food distribution in their countries. Linking country initiatives and regional and Africa wide initiatives is also considered as highly rewarding.
