Experts from Southeast Asia, Kenya and the United States discussed the impact of COVID-19 on food security and nutrition, and highlighted the link between food and health systems, during ‘an event hosted by Devex Senior Journalist Teresa Welsh on May 12 in partnership with 1,000 Days.

Roger Mathisen, Regional Director for Southeast Asia at Alive & Thrive, explained how COVID-19 has had varying impact in the region, as well as the impact of extreme weather events, and how this has led to disruption of food supply chains in some countries.

Ruth Oniang’o, nutritionist, professor and former MP, described how rural communities in Kenya, many of whom are day laborers, have been severely affected and are struggling to obtain enough food. She mentioned the even heavier burden on women to provide healthy food and care for their families and communities, echoing Meera Shekar, global leader in health, nutrition and population at the World Bank.

Shekar also observed how food prices initially climbed, and Heather Danton, project manager, USAID Advancing Nutrition led by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc., noted that inflation, affecting both the cost of food and prices in general had also increased.

Maternal and child nutrition was also discussed, with concerns about the millions of children who are expected to be stunted and / or wasted by 2022, given the impact of COVID-19 .

While food security concerns may have been more pronounced in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries, a massive increase in the consumption of packaged and processed foods can lead to increased obesity rates and lead to diseases such as than diabetes, Shekar said. Statistics show that obese people are 48% more likely to die from COVID-19.

Mathison also mentioned a recent study from Indonesia which found that children under 5 in urban areas ate less nutritious foods due to higher consumption of packaged foods, and said families could be influenced by “inappropriate” marketing and advertising of breastmilk substitutes, and mothers are less likely to breastfeed their babies in the future.

Regarding solutions, participants raised a number of ways to try to deal with challenges. Danton called for analyzing the points of intersection between health and food systems, at specific locations even within countries, as each system is different. Oniang’o said more research and adoption of country foods could help, as well as investments in agriculture.

Governments should also be responsible for improving social protection and health systems. “[W]hile nutrition is included in SDG 2.2, many solutions to the nutrition agenda… are included in SDG 3.8, which is universal health coverage, UHC, ”said Shekar. But many countries do not know how to pay for nutrition under UHC and given that governments and official development assistance are limited, innovative financing and private sector involvement are needed, he said. -she adds.

Although Danton agreed that the private sector needs to be involved, she wondered how to make food production viable given the private sector’s goal of being profitable: “We’re going to have to identify somehow. other best practices for this challenge between profit and environmental sustainability, “she said.

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