Spotlight on the Rise of Hunger and Malnutrition Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

In April 2020, the UN Security Council was warned that numerous countries around the world were on the brink of a food crisis. David Beasley, executive director of the UN World Food Programme, explained in a UN Security Council meeting that the world was on the brink of a hunger crisis. In fact, long before coronavirus was on society’s collective radar, Beasley said he had been telling world leaders that 2020 would mark the worst food crisis since World War II.

Wars in Yemen and Syria; deepening crises in regions such as South Sudan, Central Sahel, and Burkina Faso; and natural disasters, changing weather patterns, and desert locust swarms throughout Africa have all taken their toll. Lebanon is currently in the grip of an economic crisis, with millions of Syrians displaced. David Beasley described the situation as the perfect storm.

Hunger around the Globe before and after Coronavirus

These factors, when combined with the implications of COVID-19, mean we face not just a global health crisis, but a global humanitarian catastrophe. David Beasley explained to the UN Security Council that millions of individuals living in conflict-scarred nations, including women and children, will edge closer to the brink of starvation. The possibility of famine is very real.

Around the world, 821 million people go to bed hungry each night. According to statistics published in the Global Report on Food Crisis, an additional 135 million individuals face crisis levels of hunger. As of April 2020, almost 100 million people worldwide depend on the World Food Program, with 30 million individuals at imminent risk of starvation without the organization’s lifesaving services. 

Beasley pointed out that this crisis did not even take into account the effects of COVID-19. Data gathered by the World Food Program suggests that, because of coronavirus, an additional 130 million people will face starvation by the end of 2020. Ultimately, more people may potentially die from the pandemic’s economic impact than die as a result of infection. Beasley underlined the importance of countries uniting and taking collective against the threatened hunger, reminding the Security Council that it is the UN’s duty is to protect vulnerable communities, and to act quickly to save lives.

The United States Is Experiencing Rising Food Insecurity

The economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has already left many children hungry in the United States. Food insecurity occurs when families lack the resources to provide enough food for their members. According to one Hamilton Project survey, rates of food insecurity in 2020 have markedly increased compared with the previous year.

For example, 17.4 percent of mothers with children aged 12 or under reported that, since the start of the pandemic, their children went hungry because they simply could not afford to buy enough food. In fact, 3.4 percent of respondents reported that their children often did not eat enough food since the start of the pandemic.

Developing Nations Are Feeling the Impact of the Pandemic

The UK’s Lancet medical journal warns that food insecurity could be a major consequence of the COVID-19 crisis. The publication highlighted a UNICEF report from April 2020 comparing COVID-19 outcomes until that point in developed and developing nations. 

UNICEF’s findings suggested that while high and upper-middle-income countries had up to that point borne the brunt of COVID-19 related deaths, their mortality rates were diminishing, with governments subsequently easing lockdown restrictions. However, UNICEF indicated that the worst may be yet to come in developing nations, where food insecurity and malnutrition were already prevalent.

Women and children are likely to be disproportionately affected by COVID-19 related health system disruption, as well as bearing the brunt of food insecurity. According to an article published in the July 2020 edition Lancet Global Health, these disruptions could result in an extra 1.1 million child deaths and 56,700 maternal deaths over the next 6 months. The article’s authors predicted the indirect effects of the pandemic would reach far beyond the disease, resulting in long-term economic and social consequences for individuals and societies alike.

In preparation for the impending humanitarian disaster, the UN established the $2 billion COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan. It provides vital funding to enable agencies such as the World Food Programme, World Health Organization, and UNICEF to deliver food, vaccinations, water and sanitation, medical equipment, and COVID-19 testing materials to the world’s most at-risk communities.

Edesia Nutrition Is Delivering Ready-to-Use Foods for Malnourished Children

Founded by Navyn Salem, who continues to preside over the organization as CEO, Edesia Nutrition is a non-profit manufacturer of ready-to-use products that have fed more than 10 million children in 55 countries worldwide.

Founded in 2009, Edesia Nutrition works with the World Food Programme, USAID, and UNICEF to deliver life-saving foods to countries affected by drought, war, and political unrest. Organizations such as Edesia could prove a vital lifeline in staving off food crisis in some of the world’s most at-risk communities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.