Anticipatory Action for COVID-19: Building the Systems That Protect Livelihoods throughout a Pandemic

Aug 5, 2020 | Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN
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The impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis on food systems are vast and varied, and as of yet hard to predict. But nowhere are they felt harder than in countries already struggling with food security. When the socio-economic ramifications of COVID-19 were becoming clear, FAO began monitoring the situation and prioritized scenario building exercises to help make assumptions on the potential impacts of the crises. This exercise pulled together key information from pre-existing food insecurity drivers and vulnerabilities, seasonality of food production, types of livelihoods, the expected evolution of the pandemic and related government policies and containment measures. All these elements come together in different ways depending on the context.

With restrictions being imposed globally, understanding how this would impact upcoming cropping seasons, livestock movements and trade, among others, was and still is critical. Any disruptions to these systems can have grave consequences on both livelihoods and food security. With this foresight in hand, FAO acted early in a range of countries to mitigate the pandemics shock on key agriculture and food security systems.