Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations BIFAD June 4, 2020 Public Meeting

181st BIFAD Public Meeting

Food Security and Nutrition in the Context of COVID-19:  Impacts and Interventions

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and measures put in place to stop its spread are impacting—and will continue to impact—all intermediate results of the U.S. Government Global Food Security Strategy, including agricultural productivity, livelihoods, markets, trade and policy, food consumption and nutrition, hygiene, and resilience. The Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) convened a virtual public meeting, Food Security and Nutrition in the Context of COVID-19: Impacts and Interventions, on June 4, 2020 to share the thinking of leading experts in food security and nutrition on COVID-19 impacts. 

Expert panelists at the meeting considered the most promising short-, medium-, and long-term responses across several key areas: farm-level productivity, markets and trade, access to finance, nutrition, safe and hygienic food systems, gender, and national and local policy. The meeting included presentations of credible modeling data about the scale and breadth of anticipated food security impacts in the developing world and near- to longer-term interventions and guidance to mitigate COVID-19 impacts.  

This document includes BIFAD’s findings, conclusions, and recommendations based on the meeting presentations and deliberations.