The COVID-19 pandemic is a health and human crisis threatening the food security and nutrition of millions of people around the world, according to a policy brief [1] issued by the UN Secretary-General on 9 June [2].

Hundreds of millions of people were already suffering from hunger and malnutrition before the virus hit and, unless immediate action is taken, we could see a global food emergency. In the longer term, the combined effects of COVID-19 itself, as well as corresponding mitigation measures and the emerging global recession could, without large-scale coordinated action, disrupt the functioning of food systems.

Such disruption can result in consequences for health and nutrition of a severity and scale unseen for more than half a century.

References

[1] Policy Brief: The Impact of COVID-19 on Food Security and Nutrition https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_policy_brief_on_covid_impact_on_food_security.pdf

[2] Launch of Policy Brief: https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/we-need-act-now-avoid-worst-impacts-our-efforts-control-pandemic