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Social protection to combat hunger

Nature Food volume 1, pages 517–518 (2020)Cite this article

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To the Editor — COVID-19 and the measures governments have put in place to prevent its aggravation have triggered an economic recession that will increase poverty rates and hunger. In June, the International Monetary Fund projected a 4.9% decline in global economic growth compared to 20191. A similar forecast has been generated under Ceres2030, a research project co-directed by the International Food Policy Research Institute, Cornell University and the International Institute for Sustainable Development that is calculating the cost of effective interventions to end hunger sustainably2. The estimate is that 95 million additional people, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, will be living in extreme poverty by the end of the year3.

One of the first and most common policy responses to COVID-19 was to restrict the movement of people. For the approximately 85% of Africans who work in the informal sector, often living from day to day, the lockdown means that they are unable to put food on their families’ tables4. Senegal’s farmers and itinerant traders, for example, have been hit hard by the closing of markets, an overnight curfew and a ban on travel between regions that makes it difficult for them to sell their produce5. While initially the Senegalese government did not face major political opposition for its handling of the pandemic, recent unrest in Dakar and Touba has highlighted a dilemma shared by many countries in the region: measures taken to protect citizens’ health are damaging the livelihoods of millions who work in the informal sector, creating economic distress and adding to political tensions. Falling ill or dying from COVID-19 are not the only risks faced by the population.

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References

  1. World Economic Outlook Update, June 2020: A Crisis Like No Other, An Uncertain Recovery (IMF, 2020); https://go.nature.com/34bvYSG

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, DC, USA

    Fleur Wouterse

  2. International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

    Sophia Murphy

  3. Cornell University, Department of Global Development, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Jaron Porciello

Authors
  1. Fleur Wouterse
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  2. Sophia Murphy
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  3. Jaron Porciello
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Contributions

F.W. drafted the manuscript. S.M. and J.P. provided critical revision of the manuscript. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jaron Porciello.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Wouterse, F., Murphy, S. & Porciello, J. Social protection to combat hunger. Nat Food 1, 517–518 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-00144-1

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