What's New

Vulnerable populations need reliable information regarding how to protect themselves from the spread of the COVID-19. In this way, information becomes a form of assistance in itself, giving people the opportunity to make better choices and protect themselves and their loved ones.  However, successful communication campaigns need to be designed in a thoughtful way. What is the socio-economic context? What are the main community, and potentially conflict, dynamics? What or who is driving social behavior?

Alarming levels of hunger and food insecurity are on the rise across the globe. According to the September 2021 mid-year update to the 2021 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), an estimated 161 million people in 42 countries/territories have faced Crisis-level (IPC/CH Phase 3) food insecurity or higher. This number is up from the estimated 155 million acutely food-insecure people reported by the GRFC for 2020.

The CGIAR COVID-19 Hub has released updated policy notes regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global and regional food systems. This latest series of updates covers several FSP priority countries, including Ethiopia, Nigeria, Malawi, and Bangladesh.

The world continues to face the challenge of ending hunger and malnutrition (undernutrition and obesity) in all its forms. The progress made towards reducing hunger in the last two decades has been reversed, especially due to economic slowdown and geographic closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic during which food security, nutrition, poverty reduction and agricultural productivity—all have suffered.

Our window of opportunity for achieving SDG 2 — eradicating hunger and malnutrition and ensuring access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food for all by 2030 — is closing rapidly. However, far from moving closer to that goal, the world has seen a resurgence of hunger and food insecurity.