According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Indonesia’s economy is expected to grow by 2.5% in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, down from 5.0% in 2019. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) forecasted a 1.0% growth, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a 0.5% growth in 2020.
WFP's Fill the Nutrient Gap tool analyses the nutrition situation in a country and identifies the barriers faced by the most vulnerable to accessing and consuming healthy and nutritious foods.
The twin shocks of school closures and global recession due to COVID-19 could have long-term costs to education and development. But, if countries move quickly to support continued learning, they can at least partially mitigate the damage.
Increased reprioritisation of national expenditure towards control of COVID19 will affect allocations to other sectors such as agriculture which would have long-term effects on food production and supply. The economic fallout for the continent has the potential to be severe and long-lasting.
The WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger is a global hub for knowledge exchange, capacity development and technical assistance to assist countries achieve zero hunger while it supports national ownership of programmes that guarantee sustainability of actions.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are stepping up their collaboration to help meet the essential needs of vulnerable people in Iraq. WFP has worked with UNHCR and partners to identify an additional 35,000 Syrian refugees and 10,000 people displaced by conflict who will be included in WFP food assistance programmes to help them cope with the impact of COVID-19.
Micronutrient deficiency continues to affect sizeable sections of the global population in India and this “hidden hunger” extracts a substantial toll in terms of morbidity, mortality, reduced economic productivity and poor quality of life from those who are affected.
While the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in East Africa so far is relatively low compared to other regions, disruption in supply chains is already affecting the trade and flow of commodities. Despite the comfortable stock of cereals in the global market, most countries in East Africa are food deficit and thus likely to face challenges.
While the prevalence of undernourishment has declined in Bangladesh, there still are 26 million food-insecure people in the country. Cox’s Bazar alone has 695,000 people that are severely food-insecure with over 34 percent of the population living under the food consumption poverty line.
COVID-19 is a great cause of concern globally and requires immediate actions to prevent its spread within communities. As of now, it is evident that the transmission of the disease is through direct human-to-human proximity or indirectly through contaminated surfaces.
