Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Food Security and Resilience in Africa

Linked to the immediate public health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are those of economic and food security, particularly significant for low- and middle-income countries. Currently more than 821 million people globally go hungry, with 100 million of those suffering acute hunger, and this will worsen if the evolving economic emergency becomes a food security emergency.

Sub-Saharan African countries rely on trade for food security and for revenue; they imported more than 40 million tons of cereal from around the world in 2018, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). The region faces stark new challenges due to the pandemic.

This event will launch the WFP paper ‘COVID-19: Potential impact on the world’s poorest people’. Dr Arif Husain, Chief Economist and Director of the Food Security Analysis and Trends Service at WFP, will give his assessment of the potential impact that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on food security in Africa and what can be done to prevent a food security emergency.

This event will also be livestreamed via the Chatham House Africa Programme’s Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/CHAfricaProg/live.