Distribution of the number of people in the world in “crisis” (phase 3 on the international food security scale) or “worse” (phases 4 and 5)
The economic cost of the global pandemic as well as conflict and climate change are fueling food security fears that in 2020 reached their highest level in five years, according to a report published Wednesday.
Last year, 155 million people in 55 countries faced acute food shortages—20 million more than in 2019, according to a report by the EU, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme, which see the problem as getting steadily worse.
“We must act together to prevent an additional deterioration of the situation,” FAO director general Qu Dongyu told a video-conference, describing the New Global Report on Food Crises as a call to “urgent humanitarian action”.
He added in a tweet: “We must address the root causes and make agri-food systems more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable.”
Last year saw the Global Network Against Food Crises, which groups together the three international organisations, identify 28 million people in 28 countries as suffering emergency levels of acute hunger with DR Congo, Yemen and Afghanistan worst affected.
A further 133,000 people were judged to be living in the most severe, “catastrophic” phase of food insecurity in Burkina Faso, South Sudan and Yemen.
Africa remains the continent worst hit by food shortages with 98 million people affected, or 63 percent of global cases—up from 54 percent in 2019.
“For 100 million people confronted by acute food crisis in 2020, the main cause was linked to conflicts and insecurity,” compared with 77 million in 2019, Dominique Burgeon, FAO emergencies director, told AFP.
Economic crisis was the prime reason for hunger for 40 million, compared with 24 million in 2019.
Burgeon said that “the pandemic has exacerbated vulnerabilities,” singling out Sudan, Zimbabwe and Haiti—the latter also hit by climate issues affecting the food security of some 15 million people.
With COVID restrictions still in place across much of the world, Burgeon said the coming year would be very difficult, exacerbating food security in already fragile economies.
He estimated at 142 million the number of people who would be affected in 40 of the worst-hit countries.
And with the global population on its way to hitting 8.5 billion by 2030, the report concluded that COVID-19 had underlined the need to make food distribution more equitable as the number of mouths to feed grows.
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Pandemic, war, climate change fuel food fears (2021, May 6)
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Scene in Bangladesh under COVID. Credit: Mehdi Hasan/Dhaka Tribune
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year led to a devastating loss of jobs and income across the global south, threatening hundreds of millions of people with hunger and lost savings and raising an array of risks for children, according to new research co-authored at the University of California, Berkeley.
The research, to be published Friday Feb. 5, 2021, in the journal Science Advances, found “staggering” income losses after the pandemic emerged last year, with a median 70% of households across nine countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America reporting financial losses. By April last year, roughly 50% or more of those surveyed in several countries were forced to eat smaller meals or skip meals altogether, a number that reached 87% for rural households in the West African country of Sierra Leone.
“In the early months of the pandemic, the economic downturn in low- and middle-income countries was almost certainly worse than any other recent global economic crisis that we know of, whether the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, the Great Recession that started in 2008, or the more recent Ebola crisis,” said UC Berkeley economist Edward Miguel, a co-author of the study. “The economic costs were just severe, absolutely severe.”
The pandemic has produced some hopeful innovations, including a partnership between the government of Togo in West Africa and UC Berkeley’s Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) on a system to provide relief payments via digital networks.
But such gains are, so far, isolated.
The new study—the first of its kind globally—reports that after two decades of growth in many low- and middle-income countries, the economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic threatens profound long-term impact: Reduced childhood nutrition could have health consequences later in life. Closed schools may lead to delayed development for some students, while others may simply drop out. When families use their savings to eat, rather than invest in fertilizer or farm improvements, crop yields can decline.
“Such effects can slow economic development in a country or a region, which can lead to political instability, diminished growth or migration,” said Miguel, a co-director at CEGA.
Share of households experiencing drops in employment. Credit: Innovations for Poverty Action
A troubling picture of life during the pandemic
The study was launched in spring 2020, as China, Europe and the U.S. led global efforts to check spread of the virus through ambitious lockdowns of business, schools and transit. Three independent research teams, including CEGA, joined to conduct surveys in the countries where they already worked.
Between April and early July 2020, they connected with 30,000 households, including over 100,000 people, in nine countries with a combined population of 500 million: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and Sierra Leone in Africa; Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines in Asia; and Colombia in South America. The surveys were conducted by telephone.
Reports early in the pandemic suggested that developing countries might be less vulnerable because their populations are so much younger than those in Europe and North America.
But the research teams found that, within weeks after governments imposed lockdowns and other measures to control the virus’s spread, the pandemic was having a pervasive economic impact:
Income fell broadly. In Colombia, 87% of respondents nationwide reported lost income in the early phase of the pandemic. Such losses were reported by more than 80% of people nationwide in Rwanda and Ghana.
People struggled to find food. In the Philippines, 77% of respondents nationwide said they faced difficulty purchasing food because stores were closed, transport was shut down or food supplies were inadequate. Similar reports came from 68% of Colombians and 64% of respondents in Sierra Leone; rates were similar for some communities within other countries.
Food insecurity rose sharply. While the impact was worst in rural Sierra Leone, other communities were hard hit: In Bangladesh, 69% of landless agricultural households reported that they were forced to eat less, along with 48% of households in rural Kenya.
Share of households experiencing drops in food security. Credit: Innovations for Poverty Action
Children faced increased risk. With schools closed, the risk of educational setbacks rose. Many respondents reported delaying health care, including prenatal care and vaccinations. Some communities reported rising levels of domestic violence.
“The combination of a lengthy period of undernutrition, closed schools, and limited health care may be particularly damaging in the long run for children from poorer households who do not have alternative resources,” the authors wrote.
Miguel’s recent research has focused on economic conditions for poor people in Kenya, and he said people there scrambled to cope with the crisis.
“People moved in with relatives,” he said. “People moved back to their home areas in rural places where there was food. Other people were just relying on the generosity of friends and relatives and co-workers to get by. When you’re living on only a couple of dollars a day, and you don’t get that money, it’s a desperate situation.”
Wealthier countries are also gripped by crisis, but co-author Susan Athey, an economist at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, said they’re better able to cope.
“COVID-19 and its economic shock present a stark threat to residents of low- and middle-income countries—where most of the world’s population resides—which lack the social safety nets that exist in rich countries,” Athey said. “The evidence we’ve collected shows dire economic consequences … which, if left unchecked, could thrust millions of vulnerable households into poverty.”
A model of positive, high-impact international partnership
In fact, Miguel said, governments everywhere have struggled to address the health and economic dimensions of the pandemic. In both rich and poor nations, he said, governments have used the pandemic as a reason to crack down on political opponents.
Share of households experiencing drop sin income. Credit: Innovations for Poverty Action
But the crisis has also produced hopeful engagements. The CEGA initiative to support Togolese leaders in developing a system for digital relief payments could be a model for international partnerships.
Under that project, CEGA co-Director Joshua Blumenstock has worked closely with top government officials in Togo to develop an advanced data-driven system for identifying people in need and delivering financial aid. The system uses new computational technologies, with data from satellite imagery, mobile phones and traditional surveys to identify people or communities in economic distress.
Already, “over 550,000 Togolese individuals have received cash transfers of roughly $20 a month,” said Lauren Russell, CEGA director of operations. “The grant should allow for the project to be scaled and evaluated even further, with the hope that the methods might be well-suited for adoption by other low- and middle-income countries.”
Global crises require global solutions
Still, Miguel said the disparities between rich and poor nations have been “disheartening.” In North America and Europe, nations may be struggling with vaccination plans, but vaccines have barely arrived in most low-income countries, he said.
“We will not recover in the rich countries until the whole world gets the vaccine and until the crisis is dealt with globally,” he said. “As long as there’s active pandemic in parts of the world that’s affecting travel and tourism and trade, our economy and our society is going to suffer. If we can spread the wealth in terms of pandemic relief assistance and vaccine distribution, we’re all going to get out of this hole faster.”
More information:
D. Egger el al., “Falling living standards during the COVID-19 crisis: Quantitative evidence from nine developing countries,” Science Advances (2021). advances.sciencemag.org/lookup … .1126/sciadv.abe0997
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Pandemic caused ‘staggering’ economic, human impact in developing counties, research says (2021, February 5)
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In this Feb. 28, 2019 file photo provided by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, the U.S. National Park Service and the National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation, a white wolf is released onto Isle Royale National Park in Michigan. One of the world’s longest-running wildlife field studies has fallen prey to the coronavirus pandemic. Superintendent Denice Swanke said Friday, Jan. 15, 2021 that this year’s mission has been scrapped to protect the scientists and support personnel from possible exposure to the virus. (Daniel Conjanu/The National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation via AP, File)
One of the world’s longest-running wildlife field studies has fallen prey to the coronavirus pandemic.
Since 1959, a research team has spent most of the winter observing the interplay between wolves and moose at Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. But this year’s mission has been scrapped to protect the scientists and support personnel from possible exposure to the virus, Superintendent Denice Swanke said Friday.
Experts from several universities, the park service and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa had planned to assess how an effort to rebuild the wolf population is affecting the ecosystem.
The remote park is closed from Nov. 1 to April 15. The winter researchers use a single cabin, which wouldn’t allow for social distancing. Also factoring into the decision to cancel the expedition were the border closure between the United States and Canada, and a shortage of flight resources to bring supplies, Swanke said.
The park service and partners will try to document wolf population changes this summer using remote cameras and other techniques, Swanke said. But they won’t have the benefit of aerial observations that can be done only during winter, when the animals are easier to spot.
“There will just be a hole in the data that nothing can be done about,” said John Vucetich of Michigan Technological University, one of the biologists who have produced annual reports about the wolves and moose that roam the island park, as well as its other wildlife and vegetation.
Wolves are believed to have crossed ice bridges from the mainland to the island in the mid-20th century. They established packs and helped keep the moose from overpopulating their habitat.
When inbreeding all but wiped out the wolves in recent years, officials began airlifting in others from the U.S. and Canadian mainland.
The most recent count last year put their numbers at 12 to 14. The moose herd was estimated to number 1,876.
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Pandemic interrupts longtime Isle Royale wolf, moose study (2021, January 16)
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Major geopolitical changes have influenced labour migration in Europe. The fall of communism, EU expansion, globalization and the dismantling of national borders have enabled extensive labour migration, says Professor Rye. Photo: Johan Fredrik Rye
The coronavirus has taught us an important lesson.
“The pandemic has shaken the entire system. Migrant workers weren’t allowed in. Production dropped and people were afraid that the fields wouldn’t be sown or harvested. A number of steps were taken to limit the effects, including separate entry rules for agricultural workers. This demonstrated the important role of migrant workers in the European food industry,” says Johan Fredrik Rye, professor in NTNU’s Department of Sociology and Political Science.
In Norway, the state wanted to stimulate farmers to entice domestic labor to take on the spring planting and fall harvesting of this year’s crop. In the UK, Prince Charles was at the forefront of trying to get the English to go out into the fields.
Both attempts were unsuccessful.
“The challenge is that migrant workers do the jobs that a country’s own population no longer wants to do. These are jobs that are often poorly paid, poorly regulated, monotonous, dirty and sometimes dangerous,” says Rye.
When migrant workers take over manual jobs, the status of those jobs drops further and makes them even less attractive to local people. The emphasis is more on the employer’s needs than on the employee’s right to a decent job, according to the migrant researcher.
Karen O’Reilly and Rye teamed up to edit the recently published book titled International Labor Migration to Europe’s Rural Regions.
The book includes contributions from a number of research groups that have studied different aspects of the diverse labor migration patterns in Europe.
Migrant workers range from Russians and Poles in the Norwegian fishing industry, Polish seasonal workers in container barracks on German farms and Thai berry pickers in Swedish forests, to Ukrainian farm workers in Poland, Eastern European strawberry pickers in Norway and England, Albanians in Greek agriculture and shepherds in the Mediterranean countries.
Two chapters compare American and European agriculture.
Rye and O’Reilly are clear on what the research shows: migrant workers and seasonal workers are marginalized, invisible and exploited.
“Poor working conditions and low status characterize Norwegian rural communities more than before and will continue to do so. Migrant workers often find themselves in the marginal zone of the regulated labor market, both in Norway and elsewhere in Europe,” says the sociologist.
“A lot of people are trying to change these conditions, but it’s tough, even when you try to pass laws to regulate working life. The problems lie more with how global food production is organized than in the unwillingness of individual employers.”
Change is difficult because farming needs to be profitable, so the wage level has to be kept low.
Consumers are happy to say yes when asked if they would be willing to pay a little more for their food if it were produced in a more responsible way, but when they’re actually shopping they opt for the cheapest choice. It’s not easy to do anything about that, says the professor.
Europe is estimated to have 5.5 million migrant workers, and the number may well be higher. Photo: Johan Fredrik Rye
According to Rye, migrant workers are expected to work hard—and settle for little.
Poles in Norway are said to be ideal workers despite the fact that their living conditions are poor and isolated. We find similar situations all over the European continent. For example, Romanian strawberry pickers in Andalusia are housed in rooms with anywhere from two or six others. They’re far from home and are only minimally integrated into the host culture.
Common to the various host countries is that the authorities ignore the migrants’ poor working and living conditions. Recruitment companies minimize the possibility of employees participating in collective bargaining schemes.
“Working life in Norway is among the most regulated in Europe. It’s a good starting point. But at the same time, the state’s attention has been less focused on some parts of working life in the rural districts. The labor market in rural areas may seem more immune to attempts at state regulation, making migrant workers’ ability to organize that much harder,” says Rye.
More than almost any other industry, food production depends on migrant workers. Employers defend low wages by saying that migrants earn much more than they would in their home country.
“The system maintains an idyllic picture of a triple-win from labor migration: the employer gets good, cheap labor, the employee earns more than at home, and the family and home country benefit from it,” says Rye.
Rye points out that major geopolitical changes have influenced labor migration in Europe. The fall of communism, EU expansion, globalization and the dismantling of national borders have enabled extensive labor migration. Cheap flights have made it easy to get around. In theory, you could live in Gdansk and commute weekly to Norway. The book refers to the fact that there are 5.5 million migrant workers in Europe, and says that the actual number is probably even higher.
Agriculture in the United States is highly industrialized. The country’s two million farmers produce as much as 10 million farmers do in the EU. American working life is also far less regulated, less unionized and the welfare schemes much worse than in Europe.
Rye says that large parts of the agricultural and food production sectors in Europe are heading into similar industrialization at full speed.
“This is most evident in labor-intensive fruit and vegetable production in the Mediterranean countries, such as in southern Spain, where a 450 square kilometer area is covered with plastic for growing vegetables,” he says.
“But agriculture is becoming much more centralized in Norway too. Small farms are dying out and being replaced by much larger enterprises. This development sets the stage for bringing in more farm workers from abroad,” Rye adds.
Labor migration has a lot to do with emotions, says the professor. Migrant workers’ driving force is most often the hope of a better life for themselves and their families. But for many of them, it’s a demanding life, even if they make more money than at home.
The jobseeker leaves home and often has to live in a shared household. That might not pose a problem for a young Swede who’s spending a few months cleaning crabs on the Norwegian coast. It’s something else for a father with three children back home in Poland.
“Migrant workers live a kind of shadow life. They aren’t at home nor are they part of the community they’ve come to for work. Right-wing populism in Europe is strongest in rural areas, which probably affects migrant workers in some countries. The main impression in the Norwegian debate, however, is that people have a positive view of labor migration from Eastern Europe,” says Rye.
The researchers’ use a broad definition of “migrant worker.” It includes Poles who have worked in fish processing on Frøya island for ten years and Thai berry pickers who comb Scandinavia’s forests for a few weeks.
A high percentage of those who come to Norway as refugees also end up in low-paying agricultural jobs or in the food industry in rural areas. Getting a job without a Norwegian education and with poor language skills is difficult.
More information:
International Labour Migration to Europe’s Rural Regions, edited by Johan Fredrik Rye and Karen O. Reilly, Routledge.
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This July 2020 photo provided by Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture shows staff members of the Suva Christian School, Louisa John, left, and her colleague working in their garden in Suva, Fiji. Coronavirus infections have barely touched many of the remote islands of the Pacific, but the pandemic’s fallout has been enormous, disrupting the supply chain that brings crucial food imports and sending prices soaring as tourism wanes. (Fiji Ministry of Agriculture via AP)
Coronavirus infections have barely touched many of the remote islands of the Pacific, but the pandemic’s fallout has been enormous, disrupting the supply chain that brings crucial food imports and sending prices soaring as tourism wanes.
With a food crisis looming, many governments have begun community initiatives to help alleviate shortages: extending fishing seasons, expanding indigenous food gathering lessons and bolstering seed distribution programs that allow residents greater self-reliance.
“We initially started with 5,000 seeds and thought we would finish them in nine months’ time. But there was a very big response, and we finished distributing the seeds in one week,” said Vinesh Kumar, head of operation for Fiji’s Agriculture Ministry.
The project provides residents with vegetable seeds, saplings and basic farming equipment to help them grow their own home gardens.
Fiji resident Elisabeta Waqa said she had contemplated starting a garden before the pandemic, but—with no job, extra time at home and seeds from the ministry and friends—finally took action.
Looking to have “zero financial investment,” Waqa collected buckets, crates and other potential planters discarded on the side of the road and in the trash. Soon her yard transformed into containers of green beans, cucumber, cabbage and other produce.
“When I started harvesting about two, three weeks later, that’s when I realized: My gosh, this is a hobby people have had for so long. I thought about just how much money I could save my doing this,” Waqa said.
Geographically isolated with limited arable land and increased urbanization, many of the Pacific island countries and territories have seen their populations shift from traditional agriculture-based work to tourism. The trend has created an increased reliance on imported food such as corned beef, noodles and other highly processed foods instead of the traditional diet of locally grown items like nutrient-rich yams and taro.
This July 2020 photo provided by Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture shows a vegetable garden at the Suva Christian School in Suva, Fiji. Coronavirus infections have barely touched many of the remote islands of the Pacific, but the pandemic’s fallout has been enormous, disrupting the supply chain that brings crucial food imports and sending prices soaring as tourism wanes. (Fiji Ministry of Agriculture via AP)
Eriko Hibi, director of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Liaison Office in Japan, called the shift a “triple burden” of health issues: undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity.
When the pandemic hit, nearly all the countries in the region closed their borders. Shipping supply chains—including fertilizer for farms and food—were disrupted, causing prices to rise. In Suva, Fiji, the cost of some fresh fruits and vegetables rose by up to 75% during the first weeks.
At same time, tourism—which Hibi said accounts for up to 70% of some countries’ gross domestic product—came to a halt, leaving thousands unemployed with decreased access to food.
“It’s not just about the availability of the prices in the market but also the purchasing power of the consumers, which has gone down,” Hibi said.
In Tuvalu, the government held workshops teaching youth indigenous food production methods such as taro planting and sap collection from coconut trees. In Fiji, the government extended fishing season of coral trout and grouper that could be sold for income or used as food. Numerous governments encouraged residents to move back to rural areas that had stronger independent food resources.
Tevita Ratucadre and his wife moved back to a rural village in Fiji to save on rent and food costs after being laid off from the hotel where they worked because of COVID-19.
In the city, “you have to buy everything with money, even if you have to put food on the table,” Ratucadre said. “In the village you can grow your own things.”
Having watched his parents farm when he was a child, Ratucadre said he was able to remember how to plant and grow cassava stems from a neighbor. He now grows enough food for his family, he said.
This July 2020 photo provided by Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture shows Young Men’s Christian Association General Secretary John Lee and a spinach plant in Suva, Fiji. Lee said seedlings provided by the Ministry of Agriculture fed families during this difficult juncture in their lives. Coronavirus infections have barely touched many of the remote islands of the Pacific, but the pandemic’s fallout has been enormous, disrupting the supply chain that brings crucial food imports and sending prices soaring as tourism wanes. (Fiji Ministry of Agriculture via AP)
“When I used to work, I used to buy whatever I wanted to eat when I’d go to the supermarket,” he said. “Now I have to plant and eat whatever I’ve planted.”
Mervyn Piesse, a research manager at Australian-based research institute Future Directions International, said it was too early to know what the potential health benefits could be but regional diets might shift away from imports to more fresh food, even after the pandemic.
“There is, I think, a movement in parts of the Pacific for people to actually start thinking about, ‘If we can grow food ourselves during a global pandemic, why can’t we do the same thing at normal times?'” Piesse said.
Waqa said she has already made up her mind—though she’s begun working again, she’s taught her older children how to take care of the garden and harvest produce while she’s gone.
“Now I save money on food, know where my food is coming from and just feel more secure about having food,” she said. “I don’t want to go back to the way things were before.”
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Amid pandemic, Pacific islands work to offset food shortages (2020, December 28)
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National reading and math tests long used to track what U.S. students know in those subjects are being postponed from next year to 2022 over concerns about whether testing would be feasible or produce valid results during the coronavirus pandemic, the National Center for Education Statistics announced Wednesday.
The biennial National Assessment of Educational Progress evaluations used for the Nation’s Report Card were slated early next year for hundreds of thousands of the country’s fourth and eighth graders. But widespread remote learning and health protocols would have added big complications and costs because the model uses shared equipment and sends outside proctors to conduct the testing in schools.
Pushing ahead with testing in 2021 runs the risk of spending tens of millions of dollars and still not getting the data necessary to produce a reliable, comparable picture of state and national student performance, NCES Commissioner James Woodworth said in a statement. By law, they would have to wait another two years for the next chance at testing.
Testing in 2022 instead “would be more likely to provide valuable—and valid—data about student achievement in the wake of COVID-19 to support effective policy, research, and resource allocation,” the leaders of the National Assessment Governing Board said in a separate statement supporting the move.
The nonpartisan Council of Chief State School Officers also supported the NAEP postponement.
Ohio Department of Education spokesperson Mandy Minick called it “entirely understandable” given the extensive disruptions schools are facing.
“I think we’re all on the same page about trying to stress health and safety,” she said.
However, the decision also delays data that could help show how the pandemic is impacting learning.
Woodworth suggested that results from states’ annual tests—generally conducted using schools’ own equipment and staff, and perhaps therefore more feasible than the national tests—could help bridge the gap and provide a state-level look at the impact. But the NAEP postponement might have ripple effects in the debate about whether those state tests even happen in spring 2021.
State tests, which are federally mandated and are used more for accountability purposes, were canceled last spring under federal waivers as the pandemic surged. The current administration under Republican President Donald Trump had indicated states shouldn’t expect to be granted another round of waivers if they request them, but it’s an issue likely to come up again after Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s administration takes office.
“If the national assessment can’t be done in ’21, states are legitimately going to say, ‘Well, why are we expected to test in ’21?'” said Chester Finn, a former chair of the National Assessment Governing Board and president emeritus of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute who advocates results-based accountability.
If states get to skip the tests again this spring, that could create a multiyear gap in data that helps inform other decisions and identify concerns, Finn said.
“If you’re not held accountable for your results, or there’s no way to do it because there’s no information about your results, then all sorts of bad things happen to the education system and to the kids in the education system,” he said. “We sort of go back to the pre-accountability days, when, you know, the only thing you knew about a kid’s learning was the teachers’ grades, and the only thing you knew about a school’s performance was what the principal said it was, and nobody had data on gaps between different groups of kids.”
The postponement of national tests is understandable but makes having state tests in 2021 “a moral imperative,” the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., and the top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, said in a joint statement.
“In order for our nation to recover and rebuild from the pandemic, we must first understand the magnitude of learning loss that has impacted students across the country,” they wrote. “That cannot happen without assessment data.”
In letters to those lawmakers, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos also expressed strong support for proceeding with state assessments next spring and said states “have ample time to plan for successful test administration tailored to their unique circumstances.”
Her letters also noted that because NAEP is federally mandated, Congress would need to sign off on postponing the national testing for a year.
