- Italian government-proposed initiative
- To tackle the long-term impacts of the pandemic on food and agriculture
- Engaging more countries to support the efforts
The COVID-19 Food Coalition, launched by the Government of Italy in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is gaining momentum.
The initiative which was presented in June 2020 has since seen more countries joining, in an effort to tackle medium and long-term adverse impacts of the current pandemic on food systems and agriculture.
The coalition is a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral mechanism that aims to rally political, financial and technical assistance in support of countries heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. It will offer a platform to develop a dialogue among various stakeholders including private sector, academia, farmer organizations, civil society, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and others to provide country-specific responses to the COVID-19 impacts on food systems.
It will also serve as a platform where various countries can exchange ideas and knowledge to work out solutions for members facing similar challenges when dealing with the implications of the pandemic on food systems and food supply.
So far, more than 35 nations from all over the world have either joined or offered support to the Coalition.
Reports have shown that COVID-19 can also be a serious threat to global food security aside being a major public concern. Increasing unemployment rates, income losses and rising food costs are threatening food access in developed and developing countries alike and will have long-term effects on food security as well as plunge national economies into recession.
FAO shared estimates of the number of people who lacked access to food even before the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the global food systems and livelihoods of millions of people at the start of the year. According to FAO, almost 690 million people went to bed hungry, with 135 million on the brink of starvation. Another 183 million were at risk of being pushed into extreme hunger if faced with an additional stressor, which spurs concerns especially in the current crisis.
Equally urgent is the compounding threat of the pandemic on existing crises – such as conflict, natural disasters, climate change, pests and plagues – that are already stressing our food systems and triggering food insecurity around the globe.
FAO’s Deputy Director-General, Beth Bechdol, assured that his outfit will keep the initiative going to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and urged governments to join the initiative.
“In response to the current emergency, the Food Coalition will support existing FAO efforts to help countries get back on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals on reducing hunger and malnutrition. We encourage all our members to join this initiative – an exemplary approach to leveraging high-level capital and political will to avoid an escalation of the pandemic from a health crisis to a food crisis.”
Italy’s Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Emanuela del Re, also commenting on the initiative said, Italy will continue to support the initiative with the hope of eradicating world hunger.
“The global scale of the pandemic requires renewed efforts to eradicate world hunger. For this reason, the Italian cooperation approach aims to strengthen the link between humanitarian intervention and development, creating resilient food systems and strengthening sustainable supply chains. We will continue this action by supporting the further development of the FAO ‘Food Coalition’ initiative promoted by Italy.”
The Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Italy, Marina Sereni said,
“I wish to express all my satisfaction in seeing the Italian proposal to establish a Food Coalition receiving since the beginning the immediate support of so many countries including the United States, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Argentina, Egypt and others that are communicating their interest in these hours.”
Boosting joint efforts to tackle COVID-19 long-term impacts
To minimise the impacts of the current emergency in the long run, the Coalition will support FAO efforts to promote resilient and sustainable food production systems, improve nutrition, increase agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, especially women, youth, indigenous peoples and family farmers, while addressing disruptions caused by COVID-19.
