Neha Kumar GLOBAL FOOD POLICY REPORT GLOBAL LAUNCH EVENT - 2021 Global Food Policy Report: Transforming Food Systems After COVID-19 APR 13, 2021 - 09:30 AM TO 11:00 AM EDT

1. Neha Kumar
Senior Research Fellow
Poverty, Health and Nutrition Division
International Food Policy Research Institute
April 13, 2021
Towards inclusive food systems
Pandemics, vulnerable groups, and the
role of social protection

2. Tommy Trenchard / Panos Pictures
▪ living in suboptimal conditions
▪ dependent on unreliable livelihoods
▪ limited (no) access to healthcare and safety
net
Poor households in rural and urban areas,
informal workers, migrant workers, women,
refugees and internally displaced persons
▪ Coping strategies will have long-term
implications
The COVID-19 pandemic
disproportionately affected the
most vulnerable…

3. Giacomo Pirozzi / Panos Pictures
▪ Rural and urban dwellers had different
experiences
- Rural households better insulated in short term
- Food supply chain disruptions affected urban dwellers more
- Coverage of safety nets limited in urban areas
▪ Informal sector workers
- Unregulated sector and worst hit by lockdowns
- Low coverage of safety nets or unemployment/health insurance
▪ Women and children
- Women lose autonomy and their assets sold first
- “Stay at home” – potential exposure to violence for women & children
- Children affected in multiple ways
Impacts were widespread and
uneven and with limited
coverage of safety nets

4. Anton Jankovoy / Shutterstock.com
▪ 1,414 social protection measures taken by 215
countries and territories
- Reached over 1.1 billion people or 14% of world’s population
- Compared to pre-pandemic levels benefit amounts doubled
and coverage increased by 240%!!!
▪ Yet, it was limited in many ways…
- Transfers were one-off or short duration
- Transfer amount was not sufficient
- Coverage remained low
- Not gender-sensitive
▪ But there are important lessons for improving
social protection programs going forward…
Social protection response to the
pandemic was unprecedented…

5. Edward Echwalu / ESP
▪ the importance of basic needs
▪ the importance of political will
▪ the need for a multifaceted approach to
dealing with it
It is imperative to distill lessons learned
during the pandemic for long term
transformation of food systems and social
programs to alleviate inequalities that exist
The pandemic highlighted…