In a remarkably short period of time, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has reached most countries in the world. Countries struggle to contain the effects of the pandemic, which poses major threats to lives as well as livelihoods. While government responses have tended to be of a national nature, a global coordinated action needed urgently in order to avoid the health crisis from becoming a food security crisis.
The COVID-19 crisis could pose long-term effects on food security and nutrition through multiple disruptions in food systems that affect food production, health of farmers, access to agricultural inputs, access to markets, rural jobs and livelihoods, and a decrease in both rural and urban demand of food due to a loss of jobs and incomes, among others. Farmers are already reporting a stark increase in food losses as a result of reduced demand and market disruptions. People’s access to diverse and nutritional diets will also be affected around the globe, but more so in countries with high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition.
Against this background, suggested by the Government of Italy, FAO is launching the establishment of a Food Coalition, calling for an alliance, a voluntary network of networks working together to prevent that the health crisis becomes a catastrophic world food crisis.
The Food Coalition is a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral alliance that will activate and mobilize support for unified global actions in response to COVID-19. The Food Coalition will support innovative COVID-19 initiatives, identified in the context of various synergistic lines of action, not only to ensure global food access, but also to increase the resilience of and, in many cases, the transformation of agri-food systems in a more sustainable manner. In response to the current emergency, the Food Coalition will support existing and future efforts to help countries get back on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals with a focus on Ending Hunger and Eradication of Poverty (SDG 2 and SDG 1).
The Food Coalition will also promote the establishment of a web-based hub that provides access to country needs and demands in the form of “Action Sheets” being developed by FAO’s COVID-19 working groups, in close consultation with decentralized offices and national stakeholders. This will serve as a “Basket” of specific needs at all levels, where Members and other partners can easily access project-focused information and data as well as the funding gap on the ground, the type of assistance that would be required in order to facilitate mobilization of resources and expertise. The Action Sheets and their indicated project requirements will continually be updated.
