23 Apr 2020

Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states have been encouraged to strengthen mechanisms that mitigate the impact of COVID-19 from disrupting the food supply chains and associated livelihoods.

According to the SADC regional response to COVID-19 pandemic report released on April 22, member states need to minimise disruption to farming operations, enabling access to production inputs, critical emergency veterinary drugs as well as produce markets by farming households.

On food and nutrition security, the report shows that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 45 million people were already estimated to be food insecure in the SADC region as a result of climatic shocks, such as drought and flooding as well as structural macro-economic and social factors.

The report also shows that the COVID-19 outbreak and its debilitating impacts on livelihoods will only exacerbate the situation, eroding community coping capacities and deepening food and nutrition insecurity of vulnerable households and individuals.

Further, the report shows that the number of vulnerable people is likely to increase due to, among others, loss of informal sources of income emanating from COVID-19 pandemic.

The report provides an analysis of the COVID-19 on the SADC region and provides information on the impact, recommendations and current actions.

It also calls for particular attention to be considered towards sectors which have been adversely affected, and highlights key recommendations for SADC member states and other stakeholders to be implemented in accordance with national COVID-19 response plans. Ends