VIRUS COULD MAKE FOOD CRISIS IN MIDDLE EAST WORSE, SAYS UN

▶ Agencies say 40 million were hit by shortage in 2019 and lockdowns pose more problems

Food crises in the Middle East are likely to worsen as coronavirus spreads throughout the region, United Nations agencies said.

Nearly 40 million people spread across Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Sudan, in North Africa, suffered food shortages in 2019, the UN said, warning that coronavirus may create an additional crisis or exacerbate an existing one.

“Our organisations are closely following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the nutrition of those most affected, particularly the poor and most vulnerable.

Last year, one in five people was undernourished,” regional directors of UN children’s agency (Unicef), the Food and Agriculture Agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.

The agencies called on the international community to double its efforts to ensure that supplies reached all areas.

Even before the coronavirus outbreak, many families had difficulty getting safe and nutritious foods.

The UN believes the pandemic brought hunger to millions as nations imposed lockdowns and social distancing policies. These restrictions disrupted work, income, agriculture and food supply routes.

There were fears harvests were going to waste because labourers were banned from working, could not travel to farms, or did not want to for fear of catching the virus.

About 110 million people in the Middle East were undernourished, according to the Global Report on Food Crises

2020 published by the WFP. It estimated that 265 million people worldwide could be on the brink of starvation by the end of the year.

Governments, the private sector and donors must address “the availability, access and affordability of safe and nutritious foods and protect the nutrition of the most vulnerable families, children, pregnant and lactating women across the region”, UN agencies said.

They issued an advisory to ensure that food supply chains “keep moving, and safe and nutritious foods remain available”.

This could be done by protecting the incomes and livelihoods of those dependent on agriculture and casual labour.

Offering an alternative to school feeding and nutrition while schools were closed and providing guidance to school staff, parents and children on the importance of safe and healthy diets, hygiene and physical activity for schoolage children, were also advised.

The agencies urged governments to set up a “food security and nutrition surveillance system” using mobile phones or web-based surveys to monitor food markets, supply mechanisms and food consumption.

The system should have a “timely collection and an update of food security and nutrition information to identify populations at risk, monitor and address factors likely to have a negative impact on the nutrition status of vulnerable groups”, the agencies said.

Last month, the UN’s Committee on World Food Security said that increased instability in global food supply would hit the poorest people hardest.

Private companies and organisations called for immediate action.

“Governments, businesses, civil society and international agencies need to take urgent, co-ordinated action to prevent the Covid pandemic turning into a global food and humanitarian crisis,” said a letter by Food and Land Use Coalition last month.

The WFP said last year that about 183 million people in 47 countries were at risk of food shortages if another political or economic upheaval were to occur.