Grow, Nourish, Sustain. Together – Bouncing Back

In an op-ed on the occasion of FAO’s 75^th anniversary, FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu today said, “The UN’s food agency was born in the wake of catastrophe. Three-quarters of a century later, its mission has been made more relevant to the world at large by another global scourge.”

Even before COVID-19 hit the globe earlier this year, almost 45 million people in Southern Africa were food insecure according to the Southern African Development Community’s 2020 Regional Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis.

While widespread lockdown measures have been instrumental in containing the virus across much of the region, in some cases their impacts on livelihoods and social wellbeing have been severe. Restrictions have affected the availability of and access to food by restricting food supply chains, consumer spending and purchasing power. And in many instances, it is the poor and vulnerable in the region – those who depend on daily jobs or informal trade – that have been hardest hit.