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COVID-19 pandemic impacts on Asia and the Pacific

A regional review of socioeconomic, agrifood and nutrition impacts and policy responses










Elbehri, A., Temel, T., Burcu Ceylan, F., Mittal, S., Kularatne, D. and Dawe, D. 2022. COVID-19 pandemic impacts on Asia and the Pacific – A regional review of socioeconomic, agrifood and nutrition impacts and policy responses. Bangkok, FAO.




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    FAO has been intensively working on the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme, to reach a larger share of rural populations and to relaunch economic activities. In addition to response, the Programme is also working on building back better and stronger towards transforming agrifood systems across all our Four Betters, with an emphasis on its seven priority areas of work as well as focus on science and innovation, climate change, legal frameworks and scaling up existing programmes. This paper examines the situation in Asia and the Pacific during the COVID-19 pandemic situation in 2020 and 2021. It reviews the health, economic, livelihood, and food security impacts both regionally and at the country level for specific groups such as the poor and the most vulnerable segments of the population. Given the broad socio-economic reach of the pandemic, the Report examines the macro-economic impacts and the effects on employment and income, migration and trade, economic growth and government fiscal space, food security and nutrition, poverty, and hunger. The Report also reviews the various government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic covering the health crisis, macro economy, unemployment, food supply disruptions, food demand shocks arising from the pandemic lockdowns, reduced mobility, restrictions on international travel, and internal and cross border migration. These responses include government investments in health services; expansion of social protection measures to new groups and beneficiaries; measures to ensure continued trade in critical food and health products, and financial support measures to minimize job losses and reduce food supply chain disruptions. It also covers new policies and investment priorities, including digital technologies, to rebuild agrifood systems that are resilient, inclusive and green.
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    Progress towards Zero Hunger must be protected from the dual challenges of pandemics and climate change. The frequency of infectious disease outbreaks – including the emergence of novel viruses and zoonotic diseases – is expected to continue rising as livestock, food security, economies, and global health are increasingly threatened by a destabilizing climate. At the same time, malnutrition is unacceptably high across all regions of the world. In 2019, nearly one in ten people in the world were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity. The 13th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) in 2021 is seeking recommendations, guided by four questions about “How to Feed the World in Times of Pandemics and Climate Change?”: 1) How can food systems emerge strengthened from the COVID-19 pandemic? 2) How can the agricultural sector contribute to preventing further pandemics? 3) How can food systems become more climate-resilient? 4) How can food systems contribute to climate change mitigation better than before? In this brief, the four questions posed by the GFFA are addressed from the perspective of livestock systems. The crucible of COVID-19 is an opportunity to acknowledge vulnerabilities in order to “build back better” by applying the lessons learned from emergency and rehabilitation activities of past zoonotic disease outbreaks and natural disasters. This means investing in sustainable, inclusive, and resilient food systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and better lives. Countering the destabilizing forces of pandemics and climate change through better mitigation and preparedness efforts can see livestock systems contribute to a sustainable future by becoming greener, safer, and more equitable
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    Measures adopted around the world to contain the COVID-19 outbreak helped curb the spread of the virus and lowered the pressure on health systems. However, they also affected the global trading system, and the supply and demand of agricultural and food products. In response to concerns over food security and food safety worldwide, many countries reacted immediately to apply policy measures aiming to limit potentially adverse impacts on domestic markets. Covering the first half of 2020, the report provides an overview of short-term changes in trade patterns and policy measures related to agricultural trade that countries adopted in response to the pandemic. Despite the shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and containment measures, the efforts of governments and agricultural sector stakeholders to keep agricultural markets open and trade flowing smoothly contributed to remarkably resilient value chains. Effects on global trade in food and agriculture remained limited to short-term disruptions at the very beginning of the pandemic. Governments’ policy responses covered a wide range of measures, including export restrictions, lowering of import barriers, and domestic measures. Most of the trade restricting measures were short-lived. International political commitments were pivotal in the coordination of a global response to the crisis and in deterring countries from taking unilateral measures that could have harmed food security in other parts of the world. However, COVID-19 is still spreading and may entail severe implications for access to food and longer-term shifts in global demand and supply of food and agricultural commodities.

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